All That The Wind Carries
by padfootagain
Summary: The four Marauders are about to start their 7th year. Only this time, they will not go only to Hogwarts. After the Wizarding World was revealed to Muggles, relations between the two communities have never been so uncertain. Will a program sending Wizarding students to a Muggle school be enough to show the world that the two communities can live in peace? Jily, Blackinnon fic.
1. One Year, Two Schools

**Hi everyone! I'm back for a brand new Marauders fic! I know I was supposed to work on it much earlier this year. But my year at University being very tough, I prefered to wait till I'm on holidays, when I have time to write.**

 **For those who discover me with this fic, I try to update as regularly and as frequently as possible. And I'm French, you are warned, I may do a few mistakes, despite the fact that I obviously proofread all my chapters before posting them.**

 **I hope you like this new story. I tried to make a rather original plot, I hope you will like the change. I don't reckon anyone had a similar idea before on this website.**

 **I love writing this story, and I hope you will like reading it just as much as I like writing it.**

 **The next update will be on Sunday.**

 **Please, tell me what you think about it, don't forget to leave a review! :)**

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 **One Year, Two Schools**

It was strange not to go to Hogwarts.

It was strange not to go to the train station, not to run through the wall to the platform 93/4, not to hear the sound of the train as it was about to start its trip to Scotland.

It was strange not to walk with Sirius through the Muggle crowd, not to hug Remus and Peter on the platform after weeks without seeing his best friends, not to recognize Lily's hair coming out of the blue through a cloud of smoke.

It was strange to think that he wouldn't be at the feast this year, nor play a few pranks at the first years, nor see the Sorting Ceremony.

It was strange to think that he would not walk to his dormitory in the Gryffindor Tower, relieved to abandon his robes for his pyjamas, and claim a good night of sleep in the welcoming school he loved so much.

Instead, James was walking in Muggle clothes towards the portal of a private High School in London.

A Muggle school.

All around him, no one was wearing robes, nor holding wands. They were in uniforms, but only with a black tie, a white shirt and black trousers. No one was wearing gold and red, nor blue, yellow, or green. He knew that they didn't have schoolbooks about charms or potions in their bags, but chemistry and literature.

He didn't recognize anything as he walked through the wooden gates and into the schoolyard. The walls were all made of stones, and there were trees that grew through the paved yard, just like they did at the magical castle, but it wasn't his school. He couldn't find back this feeling of coming home that he felt every time that he walked into Hogwarts.

Clearly, Saint Peter School was nothing like Hogwarts.

Although, there were some things that never changed...

"Well, that's what I call a statue," Sirius said, whistling and nodding towards the impressive statue of Saint Peter that seemed to watch over the yard, its serious figure staring at them with a disapprobative glance. "Even in Hogwarts, this lad would look proud."

"It would make a good friend for Mourning Myrtle," James answered.

Sirius laughed, but the boy on their right merely rolled his eyes.

"We haven't been here for five minutes, and you're already being stupid," Remus complained.

"Come on, Moony, you can't deny it was funny!" Peter protested, finally catching up on his friends.

There was a flash of red, like a wave of fire through the crowd, and even if James could only see it for a second, he had recognized to whom this hair belonged in an instant. His heart started to beat faster into his chest, and he felt his stomach doing crazy flip-flops.

"So... Ginger Devil's already here, hey..." Sirius said, a mischievous smile badly hidden on his face.

James merely walked on his friend's foot purposefully.

"Don't start, Padfoot."

"Come on, Prongs, relax. I'm sure you'll finally manage to seduce her this year. After all, she didn't jinx you that much last year... she only made your head swell once, okay, but it wasn't that bad..."

"If this was supposed to make me feel better, it didn't, Pads."

"You're always so touchy when it comes to Evans..." Sirius complained.

"Well, I don't know, perhaps it's because I've tried to convince her to go out with me for years and that all I ever received from her are shouts and jinxes."

"You don't have the most delicate techniques though."

"Oh, shut up!"

Remus chuckled, patting James's shoulder.

"Don't worry. You're Head boy now after all. And she's Head girl. You'll have plenty of occasions to hang out with her, and chat, and... try to seduce her."

James heaved a sigh.

"I hate you, guys."

"We know you don't, Prongs," Peter replied, laughing.

Sirius finally recognized the group of Hogwarts students that stood in a corner of the yard.

"Looks like we've found our classmates," he said, walking towards them, his friends following close.

They shook hands with Frank Longbottom and Caradoc Dearborn, along with some Hufflepuffs who played in the Quidditch team. But when James recognized Severus Snape in the crowd, apparently talking to Bellatrix Black, he couldn't help but frown.

"I didn't think we would see any Slytherin here," he mumbled.

"Apparently, they all came," Frank said.

"Why?" asked Peter.

"Trouble I guess," the Hufflepuff Seeker answered. "I'm sure they hope to fuck up the whole program. You know?' Muggles and Wizards will never be able to live peacefully together' and all the shit."

"Yeah, I bet they're hoping it will go ill..." Remus nodded gloomily.

"I don't reckon it would have been easy even without them..." Sirius said, nodding towards a group of Muggle students who were staring at them like they were animals in a zoo.

"I'm sure it will be fine. I guess... we all have to get used to it, that's all," Remus reassured him.

"Hmm... not so sure."

"Don't be pessimistic, Padfoot."

"All I'm saying is that... if there are some students coming from Hogwarts who want to make all of this fuck up because they're too stupid to think that we could all live as equals and in peace, you can be sure that some students from _this_ High School will think exactly the same. We'll have allies and foes on both sides, and it's naive to think the contrary."

"It freaks me out when you actually speak intelligent things, Pads."

"Fuck off, Moony."

"Here, sounds more like you."

On the other side of the schoolyard, another group, made this time of Muggle students, had formed. They were looking at the Wizards and Witches with curious expressions...

"You think they're the students that we're going to study with?" Franck asked the four Gryffindor boys.

"I guess," James shrugged."Apparently, they started class yesterday, they already know who their referent teacher is."

"And we didn't have our traditional feast..." Peter complained.

"I guess we'll just have to follow them to class then," Dearborn said.

James merely shrugged again in response. But the suspense was not to remain for long. Soon, Albus Dumbledore, followed closely by Professor McGonagall and a Muggle woman, that seemed to be the Headmistress of the Muggle school, walked into the yard.

"Your attention, please, children," Dumbledore said, in his loud and warm voice.

All the Wizards and Witches approached him in an instant to listen to his speech, though the Muggle students seemed more hesitant. But they approached anyway, and listened as well to the Headmaster of the Wizarding school.

"All of you who are gathered here have volunteered to be part of this program, that I hope, shall prove to the world what we all believe in. That Wizards and Muggles can live in peace, together. It's been five years now since our existence was revealed to the eyes of Muggles. And I'm sure that there is no need to remind you that the situation between our two communities have never been more uncertain. Many of us, in both sides, have suffered from all this hate, and I am sad at the thought that we all shall suffer from it again before it is all over."

He paused, letting his words sink in.

"But this is our chance to show the World that hate can be overcome," he went on. "This is our chance to show to all who still doubt that we can live peacefully, and that we all have things to teach and learn from each other."

The Headmistress of Saint Peter school stepped forward, and came next to Dumbledore.

"Until February you shall all study here, at Saint Peter School," she said in a very high-pitched voice. "During this time, you shall spend half the day together, studying Muggle classes. During the other part of the day, the Wizards and Witches will follow their own classes, so that they can get prepared for their NEWTs After February, you will all be sent to Hogwarts, the Wizarding school, where you will all follow Wizarding classes half the day. Muggle students will next be separated from Wizards to follow their own lessons and prepare their own exams that are coming at the end of the year. Thus, both Muggle and Wizarding students shall be ready to pass their own examinations."

"I hope you will remember," Dumbledore went on, his tone serious, but full of hope as well, "that it is a chance that will probably not happen again before a very long time. And if things were to turn ill, the tensions between our two communities would only rise. So, even if I know that you are only children, I expect from all of you to behave like the adults you have already partly become..."

He stared for a moment at the Gryffindors, his electric blue eyes fixed upon the four boys.

"Now, I guess we should all get to work," he added, and there were sparkles of mischief back in his eyes.

It was McGonagall's turn to step forward.

"Before I tell you which class you are going to follow this morning, and thus with which Muggle students you're going to study until February, I'd like to remind you that as long as you are studying Muggle classes, you cannot use Magic."

She intensely stared at Sirius and James.

"Is it clear for everyone here?"

They all nodded, though it was hard for the two boys not to laugh.

"We can begin then," Dumbledore nodded, but he was awful at hiding the smile that curved up his lips.

"The four houses shall be mixed with four classes from Saint Peter School," McGonagall said. "Ravenclaws shall follow Mrs Arthur's students to Mathematics lesson."

The Ravenclaws followed the group of students who started to leave the yard and head for the stairs.

"Slytherins shall go join the class of Mr Lewis for English literature."

The Slytherins followed the second group of Muggles that left the yard in silence.

"Hufflepuffs will follow the class of Mrs Willows of Physics and Chemistry."

The Hufflepuffs disappeared as well. And now, there were only the Gryffindors left, along with ten Muggle teenagers that stared at them like they were in a circus...

"Gryffindors, you shall go to History class with Mrs Hamilton."

When James turned around towards the Muggle students they were already leaving the yard, and heading towards an impressive wooden staircase that climbed into the main building directly to the third floor. They then turned left and walked down a corridor, that seemed dusty and smelled like moist.

All along, no one talked. No one really knew how to start a normal conversion. No one really knew what they were supposed to do, except walking to class. And so they did just that, and James tried to memorize the map of the school already. He guessed it was just a reflex after all these years spent mapping Hogwarts.

First one corridor on the left, then turn right, second door on the left, climb up a flight of stairs, and then the third door on the left.

A Muggle boy opened the blue door, upon which the old paint was cracking, letting guess the colour of the wood under the worn-out colours. But instead of stepping inside, he turned towards the rest of the students.

"Hi," he breathed.

He sounded like he was afraid of these unknown faces. Lily merely smiled at him, a reassuring warmth in her green eyes.

"Hi," she answered, a little laugh in her voice.

She sounded amused. James had stopped looking at the Muggle guy. He could never look at anything but Lily when she smiled anyway...

"Mrs Hamilton won't arrive before 15 minutes," the Muggle boy went on. "Apparently, they thought it was best if we explained how the school works before our first class."

Remus smiled and nodded, encouraging the boy to continue.

"To make sure that we would all interact with each other, our teachers have already decided for us where we would sit in class."

James and Sirius exchanged a horrified glance... If McGonagall was involved in this, they would never be able to sit next to each other this year...

"So, the list is here on the teacher's desk. Let's go and find our seat, shall we?" the boy went on, before stepping into the classroom, and heading towards the long and old wooden desk at the front of the classroom.

Everyone gathered around him to take a look at the sketch of the room, searching for their names on the piece of paper.

And McGonagall was most definitely involved in this...

"Oh, Fuck!"

They all turned towards Sirius. His eyes were round, he looked absolutely horrified.

"I'm on the second row! I'll kill McGonagall for this!"

James finally spotted his name. He was on the first row, next to the door, on the right of the classroom. Sirius was on the second row, on the opposite side, next to the windows. There was no way they could interact during classes without being noticed.

"Shit, man... She's got to be kidding me!" he breathed.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"We've been in class for less than two minutes, and you're already complaining..."

"It does suck, though..." James replied. "I bet you won't be particularly happy to learn that you're at the back of the class either, are you?"

"What!?"

Whilst the Gryffindors were complaining about their position in the classroom, the Muggle students had all walked to their seat, without a single word.

"At least we're together Lils, look," Alice reassured her.

Lily smiled at her friend.

"You're right. It's not that bad."

Meanwhile, Sirius had walked to his seat, and let himself fall on his chair with a desperate sigh. Remus merely chuckle when he walked next to him to reach his own seat.

"It's not that bad," he told Sirius, as he sat two rows behind the boy.

Sirius merely glared at him.

"I hate you," he said, which only made his friend laugh harder.

Marlene McKinnon sat right before Sirius.

"Oh, wonderful..." he sighed, but this time his tone wasn't annoyed, it was mischievous. "Now, I even have an arse before me."

The blond girl turned around, glaring at him.

"Don't start, Black."

"Start what?"

"Calling me things like 'arse'. Don't you know you're not supposed to insult people every time you open your fucking mouth?"

"Language!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, I just said you were an arse..." Sirius went on. "...And a lovely one too, by the way."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Don't start."

"Start what?"

But she merely turned back towards the board, and chose to ignore him.

"She doesn't seem to like you very much."

Sirius turned towards the black haired girl behind him.

"Nah... she likes me," he answered.

He offered the girl his open hand, staring right into her big blue eyes.

"I'm Sirius, by the way."

"Angel," she answered, shaking his hand.

He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was...

"So... how is that teacher of yours?" he asked.

"She's okay I think."

"Yeah, she's a kind woman," the blond boy next to Sirius added.

"Is there any teacher we should be worried about?" James asked from the other side of the classroom.

"Arthur is very strict," the boy answered. "And Mr Howley is completely crazy."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he teaches biology. He's fucked up. You'll see. We have class with him right after Mrs Hamilton's lesson."

"When will we have our time tables ?" Lily asked.

"No idea," the boy shrugged. "Probably this morning."

They were finally all talking together. For sure, of not very important things, but still...

It felt good to see the ice melt between them all.

It was the moment their teacher chose to walk through the door and enter the room. She was young, not older than thirty, with long blond curls falling on her shoulders. She grinned at the sight of the teenagers all talking together across the room.

"Ha, I can see that you're talking together already. Perfect, I was scared you would all be a bit shy at first."

She walked to the desk, and put her coat on her chair, before sitting on her wooden desk, rearranging her blue dress.

"I'm Mrs Hamilton, and I teach History. I will also be your referent teacher in the Muggle school," she added for the Wizarding students. "So, if your Head of House is not at Saint Peter, it is me you have to call for. Before we start, I'd like you all to quickly present yourselves to the class. Let's start with you."

She pointed at James, and the boy merely shrugged in response, getting up and saying his name.

"What is your favourite class at Hogwarts, James," she asked.

"Transfiguration," he answered without an hesitation.

"What is it?" the teacher asked, an obvious curiosity in her voice.

"It's the Magic used to change the form of objects."

"Could you make us a demonstration?"

James shrugged again, and took his wand out of his pocket. In the back of the class, Lily cleared her throat.

"We are not supposed to use Magic during Muggle classes, professor," Lily told her.

"I'm sure your teachers will forgive you if _I_ am the one who actually asks to use Magic, Miss..."

"Evans, Lily Evans."

The teacher nodded, before focusing on James one more time.

"So... could you show us?"

James turned towards the Muggle girl sitting next to him. He pointed his wand at her book, and with a quick flick of his wand, the pages had turned into feathers, and a beautiful raven was walking upon her desk.

All the Muggles in the class looked at the animal in awe.

"That's beautiful, James! " the teacher clapped.

Another flick of his wand, and the bird had disappeared, the history book back on the desk.

"Well, thank you, James," Mrs Hamilton nodded. "Now, please, everyone, when you present yourself, tell us also what your favourite class is, and for the Wizards and Witches, a demonstration is more than welcome."

All the students rose one by one, and spells were cast (Sirius's firework in the shape of a dog was clapped for a long while), until it was Remus's time to stand and tell his name.

"My favourite class is Defence Against the Dark Arts," he explained.

"Dark Arts? What are these?" Angel asked.

"Dark Magic. Magic can be used to hurt people as well. And there are some magical creatures that use this kind of powers against humans too. It teaches us how to defend ourselves."

"But, you mean that only creatures can use Dark Magic?"

"No. We are taught how to defend ourselves against dark creatures. But we are also taught how to fight."

"So... you can use your Magic to hurt people as well..."

A rumour shook the Muggles gathered in the room.

"We are not supposed to. But there are evil people in both the Muggle and the Wizarding world," Remus tried to explain. "If we have this kind of class, it is to avoid that people could use Magic with evil means."

But it wasn't enough to stop all the whispering.

"Could you show us one of the spells, Remus, please?" the teacher asked.

He thought for a moment, before closing his eyes and raising his wand, a smile slowly forming on his face.

"Expecto Patronum," he said.

And all the whispers died out when a white wolf came out of the boy's wand and walked across the room in mid-air. It was like light in the shape of an animal. When Remus made his patronus disappear, the whole class clapped, and it seemed that the mention of Dark Wizards was forgotten.

But not quite yet...

"What do you use this spell for?" the black haired boy next to him, called Joey, asked.

"It's used to repulse Dementors," Remus answered.

"Dementors?"

"They are Dark creatures, they nourish themselves on happy memories. They steal all the joy from the world around them."

"How lovely..." Angel snorted.

"They are also the guardians of the Wizarding prison here, in Britain. It's called Azkaban."

"So... you have a prison especially for Wizards?" Joey asked.

"Yes, of course."

"So there _are_ dangerous Wizards out there..."

"Like there are dangerous Muggles," Sirius answered in Remus's stead.

"So it's true what they say..." Joey went on, ignoring Sirius's remark. "About this Wizard and his followers."

Remus took a careful look at Marlene.

"Yes, it's true," he said slowly.

"Like the Free Minds Movement is real on the Muggle side," Sirius added, but he was once again ignored.

"So... there are Wizards who want to kill Muggles," Joey insisted.

"And there are Muggles who want to kill Wizards," Sirius replied.

"There is evil in both the Muggle and the Wizarding societies. It doesn't mean that we can't show everyone that there is nothing to fear in sharing our two worlds," Lily said.

"I know, it's just..." Joey stuttered. "Don't get me wrong, if I'm here it's because I want to learn about Magic and everything, but... It's still scary to think that some people are ready to do pretty much anything to make sure that we will never live together in peace. "

"But... I heard that some Wizarding families were attacked as well by this... Voldemort or something..." Angel asked.

Peter winced.

"Don't say his name," he shrieked, and Angel blushed as she saw terror in his eyes.

"It's just a name, Peter," James replied, his voice deadly cold. "Don't react like that, like you were just a coward."

"James is right," Marlene said slowly. "It's just a name. It is this kind of reaction that have led us to this situation. To fear and sorrow..."

All the Gryffindors stared intensely at her, and there was a moment of silence, broken by the teacher when she cleared her throat. None of the Muggles could understand why they were all staring at her this way, but it was obvious that something terrible had happened, or would happen...

"Let's continue," Mrs Hamilton said. "Maggie, it's your turn," she added to the girl sitting next to Remus.

Once everyone had been introduced to the class, Mrs Hamilton jumped down from her desk, and picked up a white chalk, turning towards the blackboard.

"Alright, there isn't much time left for the lesson, but we'll start anyway. Please, take out your notebooks and pencils. This year, we'll start by studying the 1920s..."

She turned around as the class was shaken by a wave of whispers.

"What is it?" she asked her students.

The Wizards and Witches had picked up their parchment, quill and dark ink from their bag, and the Muggles couldn't refrain their chuckles.

"Wait, are you serious?" Maggie asked Remus.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"You use quills?" Joey asked, aghast.

"Yes..." James answered, narrowing his eyes. "What about it?"

"Why do you not use pens and pencils?"

"I don't know... we all use quills and parchment," James merely answered with a shrug.

"When you will be done with talking about quills and paper," the teacher interrupted the two boys, an amused smile curving up her lips, "let me know, so we can begin the lesson."

They immediately stopped talking, and turned again towards the blackboard, to copy the title of the first chapter they would study that year.

"So, what happened during this period?" the teacher asked the class. "And for the Wizards and Witches, you can tell us about this period too of course. It is History class, and I intend to study both History of the Muggle and the Wizarding World with you this year."

As always, Lily's hand was the first to rise.

"Yes Lily, go on," the teacher nodded.

"The 1920s were mostly marked by the raise of the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald. He was very active in Europe and America during this period of time. It was also the period of rebuilding after the War..."

"Wait... do you mean that _you_ fought during World War I?" Joey asked, aghast.

"And World War II," James nodded.

"Really?"

James nodded.

"What kind of fighting did you do?" the teacher asked.

"Normal fighting," Sirius shrugged.

"The British Communication Center is known to have been the most efficient and the safest service for the exchange of information during the two World Wars," Lily answered. "The British army was also most feared for its knowledge in dragons warfare."

"You used dragons?" Angel gasped.

Lily nodded.

"The British army was very good at it," she said, but there was a bitterness in her voice, like she didn't approve the use of magical creatures.

James smiled. It wasn't surprising that someone like Lily would not approve something like that...

"What about this dark Wizard you were mentioning?" the teacher asked Lily.

"Gellert Grindelwald was a Dark Wizard. He wanted to reveal the existence of Wizards to the Muggles, because he thought it would provoke a war between us. And he thought Wizards could win it."

There was a heavy silence across the classroom for a moment.

"Why did he want to do that?" Mrs Hamilton asked.

"He thought that Wizards and Witches should not have to hide and be afraid of Muggles. He thought they were more powerful. He saw Muggles as enemies."

"Why did you hide in the first place though?" Angel asked.

"There are less Wizards and Witches in the World than Muggles," Peter answered. "To protect ourselves, and our traditions, we thought it was best to hide."

"By separating the two communities, it insured a certain peace," Remus went on. "Muggles usually don't like much Wizards and Witches."

"It was a long time ago though, the time when we used to burn Witches," Joey said.

James laughed.

"You never burnt any Witch. An elementary spell allows us to be completely protected of fire."

"You only killed Muggles this way, not witches," Sirius nodded.

"But the persecution was still there. Witches and Wizards were always hated, and they grew afraid quickly," Remus said. "It was best for everyone to separate the two worlds."

"What was your reaction when your society was revealed to us?" the teacher asked the Wizarding students.

James shrugged.

"It changed many things on a daily basis, that's for sure. I don't think they changed for the worst though. We don't have to be as cautious as before."

"What about you?" Mrs Hamilton asked Lily.

The girl shrugged.

"I'm a Muggleborn, so..."

"A what?" Angel asked.

"Both my parents are Muggles," Lily explained. "Although, I have Magical abilities."

"So... even with Muggle parents, you can be able to make magic?"

"It is quite rare though," Lily nodded.

"So you already knew everything about us," the teacher smiled.

Lily nodded, smiling as well.

"Now I can practice my spells in my garden without fear of being seen by my Muggle neighbours during the Summer," Lily smiled.

They were interrupted by the ringing of a bell, signalling the end of the class, and soon everyone was walking towards the door. But Sirius couldn't help but notice that Marlene was taking her time to pack up her things.

A bit too much for it to be natural indeed...

"Hey, McKinnon, you're okay?" he asked.

She looked up at him. He seemed genuinely worried, which was rare enough to be noticed. Sirius was never worried about anything. He was the always-confident-always-reckless-and-childish Sirius Black.

Or at least, he never showed his worry to her...

"I'm fine, Black," she answered.

"You'd better hurry, or you'll get lost throughout the school without your Muggle guides," the teacher told them, smiling.

They both hurried out of the classroom and into the corridor, and soon found back their classmates. But Marlene didn't seem so keen on joining the rest of the students, and so Sirius remained with her, a few strides behind their friends.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Her tone was cold, and defensive. It was a tone he knew only too well. He had used it for years with James and Remus. It was the tone that allowed him to run away from conversations. It was the tone he used when he didn't want to answer a question.

It was the tone he used to avoid talking about his family.

"Look," he said slowly, "with all you've been through this summer..."

"I don't want to talk about that now, Black."

"I know, I just mean..."

"I don't need your pity, Black," she spat.

He stopped her before she could follow their classmates into the classroom.

"It's not what I meant..." he added. "Pity is not what I had in mind."

She looked up at him. To prevent her from joining the others in the classroom, he had caught her by the arm. His hold was firm, but gentle as well. It was reassuring, somehow, like the gesture of a friend.

"I... I won't say that I know what it is to lose your family, to lose both your parents..." he went on, in a low whisper, making sure that no one could eavesdrop their conversation. "But I know what it is to find yourself in the home of a friend, and to have to act as if it was your own."

She could see that he was confessing something very personal, something he had probably never told anyone. She was transfixed, merely able to stare at his hypnotic grey eyes.

"I know what it is to unpack your suitcase in the home of your best friend," he went on, "and to have to start over. So... if you need to talk about that, you can come and see me, okay?"

She wanted to laugh. Sirius Black offering her his help... it was hilarious. Or well, under any other circumstances it would have been. The subject of their conversation was everything but funny though...

She gave him a sad smile.

"Thank you, I'll think about it."

He nodded, letting go of her.

"Let's go for a new adventure then," he said, his mischievous smile back on his lips, as he pointed at the classroom.

"What is it supposed to be about again?" she asked.

"Bio... something."

"I have a bad feeling about this class," she shook her head, starting towards the open door.

But Sirius was frozen on the spot, staring at something down the corridor, a serious frown on his face. Marlene followed his gaze.

Down the corridor, the Slytherins were talking together, and anyone who didn't know them would have thought they were not less innocent than any teenager in the school. But Sirius knew better. He had seen through their games a long while ago. He knew they were playing a game of appearances. They were wearing masks of innocence, only to hurt more in the end.

When he spoke again, his voice sounded stern and cold.

"I have a bad feeling about this entire year..."


	2. Biosomething And Head Duties

**Here's a new chapter! Hope you like it.**

 **Thank you so much for your review GreTheresa, you're the best ;)**

 **Next update on Sunday.**

 **Please, don't forget to leave a review :)**

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 **Bio...something And Head Duties**

"This has to be a bloody joke..."

Sirius stared at the flower before him.

"Sirius, don't start," Marlene admonished.

"But this has to be a fucking joke!" Sirius replied in a whisper, desperate.

Marlene rubbed her eyes. Why was she paired with Sirius in this class, why...?!

"Sirius, shut up, and take these scissors," she told him.

"What's the point in cutting a flower into pieces?" he asked back, not touching the scissors.

"I don't know, but we have to do it."

He looked at the bio...something teacher. Merlin, he couldn't remember the name of the lesson again. He looked at the bald round man, with his big blue glasses that made his eyes look too big for his face, and his white coat. He was wearing strange blue gloves as well... Sirius couldn't see why. He didn't reckon a bunch of irises were dangerous. This guy seemed completely mad. He heaved an annoyed sigh.

"Well, do it then, I'm not wasting my time on this," he told Marlene, shaking his head.

Marlene heaved a sigh, before taking the matter into her own hands.

"This is so stupid!" Sirius breathed.

"I know, Sirius," Marlene nodded.

"Who cares about the anatomy of a stupid flower?"

"Apparently, our teacher does."

"Must have something wrong with his head then..."

"Hold this," she told him, handing him a scalpel.

Sirius held whatever she was handing him without even thinking about what it was. He was looking by the window.

"I'm going to hate this class, I can feel it," he muttered.

"If you could hate it in silence though, it would spare me a headache," Marlene replied, still focused on separating the petals from the flower delicately.

"See, that's why we could never be friends. Even when I try to have a normal conversation with you, you're aggressive."

"I'm not aggressive. You're just annoying."

"I'm not only annoying."

"Oh really? I thought it was the strongest side of your personality though."

"Well, you're wrong. I'm also smart, funny, handsome..."

"And your head is the size of the Quidditch pitch..."

"I'm not as stupid and childish as you think I am," Sirius snapped, narrowing his eyes.

"You couldn't manage to survive a week without setting up a stupid prank," she replied.

"I could do that easily."

"Oh really?"

"You know what, McKinnon... let's make a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yup. If I manage to stay out of trouble for an entire week, then you'll have to take a drink with me."

"You mean on a date? You're mental. It'll never happen."

"Don't be stupid, McKinnon. I've never asked you out, and there's a reason for it."

"What's that reason?"

"You're not my type."

She blinked, before narrowing her eyes and wrinkling her nose, what she always did when she was angry, but couldn't shout her lungs out.

"Oh... so I'm not your type... Well I'll let you know, Black, that you're not my type either."

"And what's your type?" Sirius replied, annoyance lowering his voice. "Ugly, stupid Slytherins?"

"And what's yours? Easy girls that you can take to bed in a blink of an eye?"

"Pretty much," Sirius shrugged.

"You're disgusting."

" _I_ am disgusting really?"

"Yes, you are. You think with what you have between your legs, instead of thinking with your brain."

"That's 100% not true. I'm a very clever person."

"Strangely enough, I've never seen this side of your personality."

"And I've never seen you being funny."

"I'm very funny, I have a very good sense of humour. The problem is that you're so annoying that it's hard for me to talk five minutes with you without wanting to curse your arse into oblivion."

Sirius raised a mischievous eyebrow.

"So, you think about my arse, McKinnon..."

"See, I want to curse you again."

"Come on, I wasn't asking for a date with you, just a free drink, like I would ask from one of the guys, if it can reassure you on my intentions about that bet of ours."

"I haven't agreed to bet yet."

"But you're going to."

"Really? You think so?"

"I'm sure of it. You can't resist a bet, that's your biggest weakness."

"And what would I win if you failed ?"

Sirius shrugged.

"I don't know. I want a free drink, what would _you_ like to have?"

"You could stop talking to me for an entire week."

Sirius seemed to think, before nodding and offering the girl his open hand.

"Sounds fair enough."

Marlene heaved a sigh.

"Alright then, if it can allow me to have one week without you..."

She shook the boy's hand.

"Perfect!"

They both turned towards the teacher who had suddenly appeared by their side.

"You did an excellent job! Congratulations!"

And he walked away, turning towards Angel and her partner behind them.

Marlene stared at the pieces of flower on her and Sirius's table.

"I don't really know how I should take the fact that I've been congratulated for cutting a flower into pieces," Marlene said.

"Well, I reckon it was meant as a compliment. You are apparently very talented in killing and cutting flowers. Congratulations, McKinnon. You're a floral psychopath."

"Oh, shut up, Black."

But Sirius was not fooled, and his playful smile doubled in size.

He had seen the smile she was trying to hide curving up her lips...

The bell rang, signaling the end of the class. But the teacher turned towards his students before letting them go.

"Please, please... For our next class, I want you to finish the sketches of your flowers. Oh, and I almost forgot I had a message for some of you, hang on..."

He hurried towards his desk and picked up a little note, holding his glasses closer to his eyes to read the short message.

"Miss Lily Evans and Mr. James Potter are to go to the Headmistress office at midday. You'll receive your timetables there."

There was a silence, the students waiting for the teacher to speak again, but he merely remained standing still, staring blankly at the note.

"Sir?" Angel called.

The teacher started.

"Yes?" he asked, looking at her through his glasses.

"Can we go to our next class now?"

"Of course, go, go..."

The students all stood up as one man and hurried out of the classroom.

"This guy makes me think about a Divination teacher..." Frank Longbottom said, shivering at the thought.

"He's as lunatic as a Divination teacher, you're right," Remus nodded.

"Hey, Cap', " Caradoc called James. "When are you going to ask McGonagall about Quidditch practice?"

"You heard Crazy Flower there, I'll go see the Headmistress at lunchtime, I guess Dumbledore and McGonagall will be there too."

Sirius chuckled.

"Oh Merlin, this nickname is going to stay..." he smiled.

James grinned back at him.

"I have to admit it's a funny one," Remus nodded, a small smile on his lips.

"You heard that, Prongs?" Sirius asked James. "Even Moony thinks it's good. And if Moony agrees, then we have no choice but to adopt this new pet name for our dear teacher."

James laughed at his silly friend. But his laughter remained caught in his throat as Lily was calling for him across the corridor. He turned around, and waited for her.

"Yes, Evans?" he asked her, making sure his tone was neutral.

He had decided not to ask her out again. Not before she had stopped hating him, at least...

"Do you know where the Headmistress's office is?" she asked him.

He shook his head.

"No idea, but I'm sure that if we ask Muggles, they'll show us."

She nodded.

"Let's go there straight after class then."

It was his turn to nod.

"Alright then. Anything else?"

She opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it instantly. They had arrived to their next classroom.

James raised a surprised eyebrow.

"Come on, what is it?" he asked her again.

She straightened her skirt, clearing her throat.

...What she always did when she was nervous.

"Look, about... us both being Heads," she said slowly, carefully choosing her words. "I'd... really appreciate it if you could..."

"Not ask you out and act like a grown-up?" James proposed.

She stared at him.

"I'm not stupid," he told her. "Of course I'll behave..."

"That's not what I meant," she tried to reassure him.

"I won't act like an arse," James promised.

"We'll have to schedule some meetings, to dispatch prefect duties..." Lily told him.

"We'll do that whenever you want. I'm new to these things, but you just tell me how I can help you, and I will."

She seemed... astonished.

"Well, okay...," she muttered. "We'll have to ask McGonagall about Quidditch as well."

James raised an amused eyebrow.

"I didn't know you liked Quidditch so much," James told her.

She rolled her eyes.

"I like Quidditch like everyone else in Hogwarts. But we'll have to match our schedules you and I. We'll have to have meetings, at least once a week," she told him.

James struggled to control the grin that was forming on his face at the idea of seeing Lily alone every week...

"Sure, we'll ask McGonagall," he reassured her.

"Perfect."

She entered the classroom, leaving a merry James on the threshold.

* * *

They had asked a Muggle student to guide them to the Headmistress' office. And while their friends were all eating their lunch, James and Lily were knocking on the wooden door of the Muggle Headmistress, who immediately called for them to enter.

The office was large and empty. Merely a wooden desk, a few shelves covered with books, a pile of files behind her comfortable chair, and four chairs for people she would receive in her office. It smelt like dust and moist. The walls, covered by some old green tapestry, gave the room an atmosphere close to the Slytherin Common Room, which for James meant only mistrust and threats. McGonagall was standing by the window, looking at the students hurrying across the grounds towards the cafeteria. Dumbledore was sitting next to the Muggle Headmistress, his blue eyes shining at the sight of his students. Two Muggles were there as well, a blond guy and a dark haired girl, who both seemed to be as old as Lily and James. They were sitting opposite the Headmasters.

"Here you are, did you find Mrs Trumbley's office easily?" Dumbledore asked the two Gryffindors.

"We asked a Muggle student to guide us," James nodded.

James offered Lily the last chair available, and she smiled at him, sitting down when James remained standing behind her.

"Oh, wait..." Dumbledore said, picking up his wand.

"It's okay, Professor, I prefer to stand anyway," James smiled.

The Headmaster nodded.

"As you wish. Well..." the old Wizard went on, clearing his throat. "This is Lily Evans and James Potter, who are our Head Boy and Head Girl," Dumbledore introduced his student to the Muggles. "And here are the Head Boy and Head Girl of the Muggle school, Jersey Mulligan and Ellie Cromwell, " he added to Lily and James.

The Heads exchanged polite smiles.

"As you are Head Boy and Head Girl, for the Muggle and the Wizarding schools, you will be in charge of organizing some events this year," Dumbledore went on "as well as to work on the relations between Muggle and Wizarding Students."

"We thought that it would be interesting to organize some events that could show students some activities practiced in the Muggle and Wizarding societies," said Mrs. Trumbley. "Like sports for example."

James smiled.

"So... The Quidditch Cup is still on, isn't it?" he asked, looking at McGonagall.

The teacher couldn't refrain a small smile.

"Well, of course it is still on," she nodded. "And I expect from you to choose carefully the new players for our team, Mr. Potter."

James grinned.

"Of course, Professor."

"As we are talking about the matter of Quidditch," Dumbledore said, "practice will have to be organized during the weekends. The Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs will be practicing every Saturday, while the Slytherins and the Gryffindors will be training every Sunday."

"Only once a week?" James winced.

"I'm afraid that it will be complicated to organize more sessions, Mr. Potter."

"Could we at least have more time a few weeks before a match?"

He looked at McGonagall.

"Please?" he tried to negotiate.

"I'm sure it could be managed," McGonagall answered, looking at Dumbledore.

A mischievous smile appeared on the Headmaster's face.

"I guess we could manage this, yes."

James grinned again.

"It would be interesting to organize some kind of... event where Wizarding students could discover Muggle sports and _vice versa_ ," said Mrs. Trumbley.

"How long do we have?" Mulligan asked.

"We should do this before the first Quidditch match," James said.

"At the beginning of October," Dumbledore nodded, " but not later than that."

"We should organize it even before that," Mrs. Trumbley said. "The registrations for the sport clubs here are planned for the last week of September. If some Wizards want to join any Muggle team, they will have to know about these sports before the registrations."

"What if we organized demonstration?"Lily proposed. "We could plan a match of each sport on Sundays or during the evening."

"Excellent idea, Miss Evans," Dumbledore smiled.

"Well, we'll let you organize all that then," said the Headmistress. "Some trips to London will be organized as well during the weekends, to make the Wizards discover more about our society."

"Does that mean that Hogsmeade's trip are cancelled?" Lily asked.

James's eyes grew round.

"We are in London, we will organize some visits of Diagon Alley," Dumbledore answered. "But I am afraid you will not be allowed to go to Hogsmeade as long as you are studying in Saint Peter's School. You will go again in Hogsmeade when you are back in Hogwarts."

James heaved a sigh, but didn't complain any more.

"You will not have to organize prefect duties during the first half of the year, though," McGonagall told her students. "You will not have to do rounds while you are here, at Saint Peter's."

"What about our timetables?" Lily asked.

Mrs. Trumbley handed her a pile of papers.

"Here they are. Don't hesitate to ask your way throughout the school."

"Do you have any questions for now?" Dumbledore asked the students.

They all shook their head.

"You have to be warned," Dumbledore went on. "There will be altercations, tensions between Muggles and Wizards, in the school and outside. You must do as much as you can to make sure that this year is a success."

They all nodded.

"You can go then, you must be hungry."

"Err... Professor?" James asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"Could I... talk to you for a minute... alone?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"Come with me then."

While the other students were leaving the office to head for the cafeteria, Dumbledore led James in an adjacent office, that had been prepared for him. It was much smaller than his office in Hogwarts, and instead of being filled with strange looking objects, it was rather empty, with a table, a few chairs, a desk... But there was also a large mantelpiece, that James guessed as directly linked to Hogwarts, and the walls were covered with red and golden shades. Despite the size of it, the office was warm and welcoming, just like the Headmaster's office in Hogwarts.

He invited James to sit down.

"What troubles you, Mr. Potter?"

James sat down, suddenly nervous. And seeing James Potter nervous was rare enough for the Headmaster to raise an eyebrow.

"What's wrong, James?" he asked, his voice warm and reassuring.

James stared at the elder Wizard.

"I... I'd like to know... Why? Why did you make me Head boy?"

The ghost of a smile curved up the corners of Dumbledore's mouth.

"Why, are you doubting my judgment?" the Headmaster asked.

"You have to admit that I'm not the one who is the most fitted for the job."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you not be the one to choose for Head Boy?"

"Have you forgotten how many detentions I had ? I wasn't prefect either."

Dumbledore leaned on over his desk, approaching the boy. His voice was low, and barely louder than a whisper.

"James, do you trust my judgment on people?"

"Of course I do, Professor," the boy nodded.

"Why are you doubting my choice then?"

"I told you, I don't think I have the perfect profile for a Head Boy."

Dumbledore gave him a warm smile.

"And I think you have."

James narrowed his eyes.

"I think you're making a mistake, Professor. I can't be Head Boy."

"Are you asking me to choose someone else to be Head Boy?"

"I think it would be wiser."

Dumbledore frowned.

"Is it because of Miss Evans? You don't get along?"

"No, it has nothing to do with her," James shook his head. "I just... I just think you'll be disappointed."

Dumbledore remained silent for a moment.

"I mean..." James went on. "I'm not like Evans, she was born to be Head Girl. I'm not. I set pranks, and I just... I'm not serious. I'm the kind of guy who never makes his essay before the very last minute, I'm messy, and completely unable to be... mature. I had tons of detentions... And I don't... want to become serious."

Dumbledore slowly nodded.

"James, I am not going to force you to be Head Boy," Dumbledore told him. "But I _know_ you would be good at it. And I do not wish to name someone else Head Boy."

James merely stared at the Headmaster.

"Trust me on this," Dumbledore went on. "I know what I am doing. And if you don't know yet what I see in you, I do."

There was a long silent, during which the Headmaster and his student merely stared intensely at each other.

"What do you want to do, James. Do you want to at least try?"

The boy heaved a sigh.

"I'll try. I'll do my best."

"Good," Dumbledore told him, his tone reassuring. "You should go eat something now, James."

The boy nodded, and walked out of the room. McGonagall entered the Headmaster's office, without knocking.

"Is there something wrong with Mr. Potter?" she asked the Headmaster, clearly worried.

"He doubts my choice of naming him Head Boy."

McGonagall nodded.

"He doesn't want to take the responsibilities that go with it," she breathed, half-lost in thought.

"I think he still needs a bit of time to get used to all this."

"With this program with the Muggles, it's going to be even more difficult to be Head Boy and Head Girl..."

"Oh, I don't worry about Miss Evans and Mr. Potter. I know they will be more than capable of dealing with problems coming from both Muggles and Wizards. And I know you agree with me, Minerva. After all, you named him Captain of your Quidditch team."

They exchanged a small smile, and McGonagall heaved a sigh.

"I hope he doesn't get himself involved into too much trouble too soon though."

* * *

When James walked out of Dumbledore's office, he was more than surprised to find Lily waiting for him, leaning against the wall in the corridor.

"Can I do anything for you, Evans?" James asked her, his tone nonchalant.

"Is everything all right?" she asked him.

He could guess worry in her emerald eyes.

"Why, are you suddenly worrying about me, Evans?"

"You're Head Boy, and Head duties are too much work for only one person to handle them on its own," she shrugged. "But don't be misunderstood, you're still the most annoying guy in Hogwarts, Potter."

"Ha, here, it sounds more like you," James nodded, the cocky smirk that annoyed Lily so much back on his face. "Though I have to contradict you on this statement, Sirius is the most annoying guy in Hogwarts. I'm the most handsome."

His smirk turned into a cocky grin, and she merely rolled her eyes in answer, feeling her blood boiling in her veins already.

Hell, this guy was driving her mad. Why, Merlin WHY had he to be Head Boy? Why not Remus? The kind, sweet Remus instead of the cocky James Potter?

"This is going to be a _long_ year," she sighed.

James bit his tongue, and swallowed back the joke he had in his mind. He wanted her to stop hating him. After all, this year was his last chance with her, he needed to be more... mature.

"Why did you wait for me, you need anything?" James asked her, serious again.

"We need to organize this sport events. We also need to take care of the organization of our first night here, make sure that everyone has a dormitory, that no trunk is missing..."

"Okay."

"We also have to give all the timetables right away, and I'd love to have help. I'll take care of the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws if you want. Could you handle the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors?"

She handed him the timetables.

"Alright..." James nodded slowly, taking the papers. "You don't want me to deal with the Slytherins though?"

"I don't want a fight on our first day, no thank you."

"I don't fight every time I see a Slytherin," he mumbled like a child.

"No, only when you talk to one," she replied. "I can handle the Slytherins."

At the sound of her voice, and the sight of her reddening cheeks, he knew she was getting annoyed. So again, he bit his tongue.

"As you wish," he shrugged. "I'll take care of the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors."

"We also have to be extra-careful about the relations between Muggles and Wizards. So keep your eyes open. And if there _is_ a problem, you're to call for a teacher. Don't try to play the hero."

He nodded again, and Lily went on.

"McGonagall asked me to organize the pairing of prefects, even if we won't have to deal with rounds. Could we do that tonight?"

"Err...Sure..."

"We'll talk with Ellie and Jersey about the organization of the sport events tomorrow, we'll join them right after lunch, before our first class of the afternoon."

"Okay..."

"Can you do all that?" she asked him.

James rolled his eyes.

"I've done much harder things than pairing prefects, Evans," he pointed out. "I can handle all that."

"You're sure? I mean, you're new to all that."

"I'm sure. I can handle that."

"Alright then. We'll see each other before diner."

But they both took a step in the same direction.

"I'm starving as well," James smiled when she frowned at him.

She nodded.

"I don't really know how to go there though," she said.

"It's across the grounds."

"You're good at memorizing maps?"

A mischievous smile appeared on his lips.

"I'm used to mapping places."

"Really?"

"You would be surprised."

"Go on then, Potter. I'll follow you. But hurry up, I'm hungry."

"And I bet you're terrifying when you're hungry."

"Indeed..."

"As long as you don't give me your prefect glare..."

"Don't tempt me, Potter."

"Hey, Evans, can you believe it?"

"Believe what?"

"We are leading an entire conversation without you jinxing me or shouting your lungs out on me."

Despite her best efforts to hide it, a small smile curved up her lips, and James didn't fail to notice it, which explained the grin that appeared on his face.

"It's normal, you haven't asked me out yet," she replied, amused.

"Or it's just because you're finally noticing my wonderful charisma?" he asked, clearly joking.

She shook her head, chuckling.

"Oh shut up, Potter."


	3. Punching His Way Out

**Here comes a new chapter! Sorry I'm one day late, I finished this chapter too late last night, I was too tired to proofread it.**

 **Thank you so much for your reviews GreTheresa and Lara.x, it means the world to me.**

 **Next update on Monday.**

 **I hope you like this chapter. Please, tell me what you think about it :)**

* * *

 **Punching His Way Out**

"Potions on our first day with the Slytherins... I think McGonagall wants to punish us for something. I don't know what though, but she must have something against us."

Remus nodded, eating a piece of chicken.

"I have to admit that it's cruel," he told Sirius.

James finally reappeared by their side, after having given the Hufflepuffs their timetables. He let himself fall on the chair next to Sirius.

"This Head Boy thing sucks," he sighed.

"All my condolences, Prongs," Sirius told him, patting his shoulder. "It is the death of one of the Kings of mischief."

"I don't intend to stop planning pranks, Padfoot," James reassured his friend. "Don't worry, I won't give up on you. Moreover, it's our final year. We have to make sure we'll be remembered as the best mischief makers Hogwarts has ever known."

"You don't like being tempered, do you?" Remus said, shaking his head, an amused smile on his face.

"Moony, we have to see big this year," James replied. "Go big or go home."

"We should make a prank right away," Peter proposed.

Remus and James both nodded enthusiastically, but Sirius shook his head.

"I can't do any prank this week," he said.

"What are you talking about?" James frowned.

"I've made a bet with McKinnon. I can't set up any prank for a week."

"Why did you bet that?" Peter asked him, aghast.

Sirius heaved a sigh.

"We were bickering. And she said that I would never grow up and that I was just a childish arse basically."

"It only means that she can read through people pretty well," Remus teased him.

"Shut up, Moony. Anyway, I told her that I could easily hold for an entire week without getting myself into trouble."

"And what did you bet ?" James asked the boy.

"If I win, I have a drink. If she wins, I'll have to leave her alone and don't talk to her for a week."

"Is there a way to take the bet as well?" Remus asked. "One week without listening to you would be restful, for sure."

Sirius playfully threw a piece of bread at his friend, but he was chuckling nonetheless.

"Bastard..." he told Remus.

"It sucks though, Sirius," James shook his head. "We need to make a prank, and we need to do it quickly."

"Prongs, I want to win this bet."

"Why? Is that so complicated to stop talking to her for a week?"

"Of course not, but still... I've never given up on a bet."

James heaved a sigh, before biting in his piece of bread. He suddenly realized how many people were staring at him.

"Is it me or is everybody looking at us?" he asked his friends, holding a boy's stare on the table next to theirs.

"Welcome to the zoo," Sirius nodded. "It's been this way since the very beginning of lunchtime. We are the monkeys, and they are the visitors who stare at us with wide eyes. Luckily, they haven't tried to throw peanuts at us yet."

James noticed a boy who was glaring at him. He seemed to be in his last year as well. As James was holding his stare, the boy suddenly stood up.

"Troubles ahead, guys," James told his friends, as the Muggle boy was walking towards them.

A smile was suddenly plastered on James's face, and he waited for the Muggle to arrive at their table. James looked more carefully at him : he was large, tall, muscular... James guessed he would need the help of Sirius if things were to turn violent.

"What can we do for you?" he asked the boy in his most polite ton.

"Get your arse out of my school," the boy answered.

" _Your_ school? What, are you the official owner?" James asked back.

"You and your kind have nothing to do here."

"I'm afraid I'm starving, like every _human_ in this room."

"You lot have five minutes to get out of the cafeteria, or else..."

James raised an eyebrow.

"Or else... what?"

"You'll throw pumpkins at us?" Sirius asked.

"Or more probably porridge, you know, it's more Muggle like," James corrected his friend.

"Of course, my apologies."

"Or else I'll make you get out," the Muggle boy replied, a violent glint shining in his eyes, his face twisted with fury.

"And how do you intend to do that?" Sirius asked, his voice frozen all of a sudden.

"You don't belong here," the Muggle went on. "You're just monsters..."

Sirius and James stood up as one man.

"Say that again, just to see..." James breathed.

"Is there a problem there?"

They all turned towards McGonagall.

"No, professor," Remus answered, standing up as well, resting a soothing hand on Sirius's shoulder.

"Why don't you go finish your meal, young man," she told the Muggle boy.

He growled, glaring at the teacher, but turned around anyway and sat back at his table.

McGonagall looked at the two Gryffindors.

"Don't get into trouble on your first day," the teacher warned the two boys.

"He's the one who came to us and insulted us, Professor," James replied. "Not the other way around."

"And I hope you intended to let him talk instead of using violence," she answered.

James bit his tongue, and sat back on his chair.

"And no pranks," she warned the four Marauders, waving her finger at them. "Is that clear?"

They all reluctantly nodded.

"Good... Because I'm keeping an eye on you all."

McGonagall walked away, leaving the four boys alone around their table.

James heaved a sigh.

"This year sucks..." he breathed.

* * *

"I can't believe you made a bet with Black."

"Alice, he was annoying, that was the only chance I had to make him shut up."

"And you and Potter agreeing on a truce is also freaking me out."

"Alice..."

Lily heaved a desperate sigh.

"You're the annoying one, right one," the girl told her friend.

"By the way, I think we're lost," Marlene pointed out, looking all around her at the dusty corridor.

It was the first time she actually regretted the annoying paintings of Hogwarts. In this school, all the corridors looked just the same...

"I mean... you've kept claiming that you hate Potter since... since first year, actually..." Alice went on, ignoring her friends' remarks.

"I still hate him," Lily reassured her. "It's just that he's Head Boy now, and I'm Head Girl. And even if I don't like it, I have to work with him. So, we'd both better try to be... polite."

"I think we need to go down these stairs," Marlene said, trying to remember what a Muggle student had told her a few minutes ago when she had asked where were the labs.

"So you... don't plan on getting friendly with Potter, do you?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not. Polite will be enough. I reckon that it'd be a miracle if I manage to finish the day without cursing him."

"Actually, hate and love are the closest feelings a human being can feel. Did you know that?" Marlene asked Lily, a mischievous glint alit in her chocolate eyes.

"Oh, so you're talking about your brand new relationship with Black then?" Lily fired back.

Marlene glared at her.

"Don't be stupid. And anyway, I've never said I hated him," Marlene added. "I just don't like his company much, that's all. I don't _hate_ him."

They finally arrived before the laboratory where they would follow their Potions classes for the first part of the year. The corridor was dusty, and smelled like moist. It was close to the dungeons actually...

"I don't really _hate_ Potter either, if you want to know the truth," Lily said softly, fidgeting her skirt. "He's just childish and annoying, and infuriating, and... okay, I don't like being within the same room than him."

"You hate him," Alice stated.

"Who hates who?"

The three girls jumped at the sound of Sirius's voice.

"Me, you," Marlene answered.

Sirius shook his head.

"I don't hate you, McKinnon," he told her, an annoying smirk plastered on his handsome face.

She merely rolled her eyes in answer.

"Did you give the others their timetables?" Lily asked James.

The boy nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by his friend behind him.

"Time for fun..." Remus mumbled under his breath, as the Slytherins were coming down the stairs, entering the corridor.

Bellatrix Black with her look of madness on her face, Mulciber and Avery, talking to each other, Lestrange, leading the little group, and in the cue, Severus Snape, following and listening closely to whatever the others were saying.

Lily couldn't help but feel rage rising in her heart at the sight of the boy who had once been her closest friend. She had tried to forget about that day at the end of their fifth year. But there were words that hurt too much to be taken back of forgotten.

The Slytherins slowed down at the sight of the Gryffindors, before Bellatrix Black would whisper something to the boys around her, and advance towards the other Hogwarts students.

"Cousin! How were your holidays?" she asked Sirius.

"I was away from Grimmauld Place, so it was pretty perfect," Sirius smiled, though he couldn't help but glare at her.

"You don't ask me how were _my_ holidays?" she asked, pouting.

"Well, no."

"Why not?"

"Because... A : I hate you," Sirius answered matter-of-factly, counting on his fingers. "B : just the sight of you makes me want to vomit, C : I don't give a damn about you. Shall I continue?"

The Gryffindors couldn't help but chuckle, but Bellatrix glowered at Sirius.

"You should watch your tone, Black," Lestrange warned Sirius.

The two black haired boys stared at each other, and Sirius frowned as Lestrange got closer to Bellatrix.

"Oh Merlin..." Sirius breathed, his eyes suddenly round with horror. "Don't tell me you two are..."

Sirius closed his eyes tightly, wincing.

"That's so disgusting... Imagining the two of you together is just so disgusting... I can't dare to imagine what the monsters you could have for children would look like."

"I reckon their sanity will be the worst part of them, Sirius," James nodded.

Bellatrix ignored the last remark, and turned towards Sirius again, a content smile on her face.

"Well, I had a wonderful summer," she told her cousin.

"Wonderful! Now, why don't you turn around and keep walking until you fall dead?" Sirius snapped back.

"Well... there have been lots of good things going on in the summer, don't you think so, McKinnon?"

Marlene was suddenly paler than sheets.

"Well, what's going on, McKinnon?" Lestrange went on. "The cat got your tongue?"

In any other circumstances, Marlene would have answered. A clever, witty phrase would have passed her lips, like only her knew how to do. But it seemed that her tongue had turned to lead. She couldn't manage to open her mouth and speak, she could barely manage to breathe actually.

How could she answer? How could she be clever when her brains couldn't work? How could she be strong when her entire world had crumbled, when she was crumbling herself?

How could she defend herself when all she could see was her parents lying dead on the ground...?

She jumped when Sirius placed himself between her and the Slytherins.

"You should all shut your mouth," Sirius advised.

"What? You're taking her defence now?" Bellatrix raised an eyebrow.

"Shut up," Sirius repeated.

"She was merely pointing out that we celebrated when these traitors of mudblood-lovers were killed," Lestrange said, a nasty smile on his lips.

The next second, Sirius was pressing the tip of his wand into Lestrange's throat.

And in the blink of an eye, everyone in the corridor had their wands at the ready.

"Why don't we all calm down," Snape proposed.

"You should shut your dirty mouth, Snivellus," James snapped back.

"He's right, though," Lily said. "We don't have the right to use magic out of class as long as we're in this school."

"So what do you propose?" James told her, his tone aggressive. "Just act as if nothing here had happened?"

"They're not worth all of us being expelled," Marlene breathed, her voice shaking.

Sirius turned around, looking at her. Her jaws were clenched, and her cheeks were reddening as anger seemed to rise in her, but when he looked at her chocolate eyes, they were shining with tears and drowning in sorrow and grief.

He nodded slowly, before looking at Lestrange again.

"She's right, it's stupid to be expelled for that, don't you think?"

Lestrange nodded, and they all slowly lowered their wands.

"Although, I do think that you're an arse and you need someone to teach you a lesson," Sirius went on.

He smiled, before punching Lestrange as hard as he could.

The next second, they were both rolling on the ground, beating each other. Soon, James, Remus and Peter had joined the fight against the Slytherins...

Sirius was already bleeding, he could feel the warm liquid rolling down his chin. He had to close his eyes as the Slytherin's fist hit his eyebrow...

"Stop!" Lily cried.

Suddenly, all the boys were separated, pushed against the opposite walls of the corridor. Although Sirius and Lestrange were both bleeding, the other boys seemed to be unhurt.

"What is it all about?!" Professor Slughorn roared, walking towards the students.

The boys sheepishly looked down at the ground.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" Slughorn went on. "Who started this fight?"

No one spoke a word.

"Who?"

Again, only silence answered the angry teacher.

"Do I really have to call for Professor Dumbledore?" he asked.

Sirius heaved a sigh.

"I started it," the four Gryffindors answered as one man.

But Sirius shook his head.

"Guys... stop it."

He looked at Slughorn.

"I punched Lestrange, and the others defended me. It's my fault, Professor."

Slughorn nodded.

"Well, as you admitted your guilt, I won't punish your friends, but you and Mr. Lestrange will have detentions."

He freed the students from his spell.

"Everyone get into the classroom," Slughorn told the students, before turning towards Sirius and Lestrange. "You two, you're coming with me, you need to be healed."

They all walked into the classroom while Slughorn was guiding Sirius and Lestrange to the sickbay.

"Mr. Black," Slughorn said, as they were walking throughout the school, "you'll go see Professor McGonagall right after you've been healed. And you, Mr. Lestrange, I'll be waiting for you right after class."

Sirius clenched his jaws, throwing a hateful glare at Lestrange.

McGonagall was going to kill him...

* * *

"So..."

Sirius struggled to swallow. He was sitting opposite to McGonagall, in her classroom. She had changed the decoration of the room so that it would look like an exact copy of her classroom in Hogwarts. And Sirius was grateful for it. It felt a bit like he was home... despite the fact that he was about to be murdered by his teacher.

"Could you tell me again what I told you and your friends at noon?" McGonagall asked him in her most severe tone.

"That we had to stay out of trouble," Sirius answered, looking down at her desk.

"And yet you punched one of your classmates not an hour after my warning."

Sirius remained silent.

"I hope you have a good reason for fighting Mr. Lestrange."

Sirius looked at her, clenching his jaws.

He didn't like telling anything to his teachers, even if it involved a Slytherin he hated. He felt like a rat every time.

"Sirius," she encouraged him, her tone softer. "Talk to me."

The boy merely stared at her.

"I reckon it helped you, the last time you were in trouble."

Sirius clenched his jaws, looking down at his shoes. Of course, she knew that the incident at the Whomping Willow involving Remus and Snape was his weakness.

"I've been involved in many other fights since, Professor," Sirius pointed out.

"Yes, but usually it involves Mr. Potter. And this time, you chose to bear the blame alone. I'd like to know why _you_ fought."

"James _was_ involved in the fight..."

"But not as one of the direct instigators. Or else, he would have never had let you be the only one sitting here now. I know my students, Mr. Black."

He couldn't refrain a smile at the sound of the pride badly hidden in her voice.

"Why did you fight, Sirius? Was it about your parents?"

He shook his head, before sighing. He knew she wouldn't drop the subject. She was too stubborn for that.

"Lestrange and Bellatrix messed up with McKinnon."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"Did they?"

Sirius nodded, not daring to look at the teacher in the eyes. He felt miserable at the idea of reporting anything to her, even if he knew they deserved it, even if it was doing what was right. It wasn't in his nature to do so.

"They... they mocked the death of her parents."

McGonagall leaned over her desk, her cheeks reddening.

"Did they?" she asked again, anger badly hidden in her tone.

Once more, Sirius nodded. He finally looked up at his teacher.

"I reckon Lestrange deserved to be punched in the face for that," Sirius said.

But McGonagall shook her head.

"I understand that you wanted to defend your friend," she said slowly, her tone less severe than usual. "But in the current situation, with all that is happening inside and outside this school, we cannot use violence."

"But..."

"Sirius, you should have reported this to Professor Slughorn."

Sirius snickered mockingly.

"And what would he have done?"

"Sirius, it is very important that you understand how delicate the situation we are in is."

"I do, professor. Trust me, I do."

"We are lucky you didn't fight against a Muggle student."

"If a Muggle was to laugh at the face of Marlene about the death of her parents, he would have a punch in the face as well. You see, no discriminations."

"This could compromise all our work. And _this_ is probably the last chance we have before an open war."

Sirius remained silent.

"You must remain more peaceful in the future. These are mere words. Be cleverer than them, see on the long term. I know you're smart enough not to fall into every trap they throw at you."

Sirius nodded slowly.

"You're not going to listen to this advice, are you?" McGonagall asked.

The boy shook his head, and the look of steel was back in the teacher's eyes.

"You'll have detentions, every Saturday for a month," she said, her voice as severe as usual again. "And 50 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your reaction. Now get out."

Sirius hurried outside, closing the door behind him. He rested his back against the wooden surface, heaving a deep sigh.

Hell, he was in _big_ trouble...

He finally noticed the presence of someone else in the corridor.

He raised both eyebrows in surprise as he looked at Marlene McKinnon coming his way.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"How are you?" she replied.

He shrugged.

"Mrs. Pomfrey was there. She patched me up all right."

"It wasn't anything serious, was it?"

"Just a few scratches and bruises. Nothing I can't handle."

Marlene nodded.

"Were you actually waiting here for me?" Sirius asked her, a cocky smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

It was her turn to shrug.

"You did defend me, I reckon I had to come for news. See if you had died of your wounds."

"I'm still alive," he smiled.

"Shit... too bad," she replied, smiling as well.

Sirius's smile turned quickly into a grin.

"Why don't we take a walk?" he proposed.

"We're supposed to go to class, you know that?" she replied.

He rolled his eyes.

"History of Magic has already started anyway."

"Five minutes ago, and it's not like the ghost will notice anything if we arrive five minutes late for his class."

"He will probably not realize if we don't come at all."

"It's our first day, don't you think you should attend all classes at least _once_ during the year."

"I usually go to all classes."

"And pay attention in how many of them?"

"Everything that doesn't involve a ghost teaching or looking for my future in a cup of coffee. I hate coffee."

"Good to know, I'll sure make you one then."

He smiled again.

"Come on, let's go. Take a walk with me," he insisted, starting to walk down the corridor.

Marlene heaved a sigh, but followed him anyway.

"Where are you going?" she asked after a few minutes of silence, as she followed him throughout the school.

Sirius shrugged, before nodding towards a little alcove down an adjacent corridor. They both sat side by side, looking at the paved grounds by the window right next to them. Marlene rested her head against the window, the glass cold against her skin.

"Thank you," she finally said after another long silence. "For what you've done with the Slytherins."

"Anytime," he merely nodded.

She looked at him, her gaze too intense for him to keep looking away from her chocolate irises.

"I just... I wanted to answer, you know... to say something back to them," she admitted. "But I... I couldn't. I felt too weak to do that."

A small smile formed on his lips.

"I was surprised not to hear you fight back," he nodded. "That's why I acted in your stead."

"It's just... it's too soon for me to... handle the whole thing. I'm not ready yet."

He nodded. Somehow, he seemed to understand...

She had tried to talk about how she felt to Lily and Alice, but the two girls couldn't understand. They were both loved by their family, they hadn't lost anyone in this war... because whatever name people gave to what was happening in their world, Marlene knew it was a war. Somehow, none of her friends had suffered enough to have only a fraction of the idea of how she felt.

The same day she had lost her brother, her sister, her parents and her aunt. An entire family erased from the surface of the Earth. Except her. The lucky rebel who had secretly walked out of the house a few hours before to find back a boy in Diagon Alley.

When she had come home, the dark mark was floating above the roof of her house, and there were Aurors everywhere.

She shivered at the memory, and pushed the thought away.

But when she was looking at Sirius, she didn't read the pity she could see in her friends' eyes. She could see compassion. She could see understanding. As if he was broken enough himself to know what it was like to feel so lost that your life seemed to you to be a mere knife, and you had to keep walking on the sharp edge from now on.

One wrong step, and you would fall into a darkness that had started to devour your heart. One wrong step, and you would die.

It felt like he had the same kind of darkness fighting for dominance inside him as well. And that was why he didn't pity her.

"You said... you said you ran away from your family," she said slowly, looking intensely at him.

Sirius clenched his jaws, but nodded anyway.

"Yeah... I went to the Potters."

"Why did you do that? I mean, I know you've never really... been close to your family but..."

He let out a bitter laugh.

"They're insane," he corrected her. "And I'm not. Or at least not the same kind of insane."

"It's true then, what they say? That they support Voldemort?"

Sirius nodded, finally managing to free his glance from hers, and look outside again.

"And you're not," she added.

It was a statement, not a question. So Sirius merely nodded again in response.

"Do you feel... lost as well?" she asked him. "Do you feel like... you shouldn't be where you are now?"

He nodded one more time.

"I've never belonged with my family," he said slowly. "So... I don't even know what it's like _not_ to be lost, to be honest."

His voice was lower than usual. She could see it was hard for him to force the words out of his mouth.

But he knew she needed to know that she wasn't the only one who didn't have anything in this world except Hogwarts. That's what he had been missing during all his life. This feeling that someone could understand. Because for sure his friends were kind, and tried to help as much as they could, and he knew he was lucky to have them by his side, and he knew they had partially saved his soul. But he still felt out of place. He still felt lonely all the time. And it was slowly killing him.

He wanted to give her the help no one had been able to give him when he had needed it the most. And to do that, he needed to tell her things he would have never imagined telling anyone.

"I feel like I don't deserve the help the Potters give me," he went on. "I feel like I'm in debt."

She nodded.

"That's how I feel about Lily's family as well. Like I don't belong there. I'm just a guest who stayed at their house longer than it was planned at first."

Sirius nodded, giving her a smile that was full of understanding.

"Yeah, that's what it feels like."

"No one seems to understand that, though. That... no matter how hard you try, you can't belong there. You can't forget the life you had before."

"I don't think they do it on purpose," he reassured her. "I think it's the kind of feeling you can only understand when you've experienced it yourself."

She nodded slowly, looking at the grey sky.

"I miss them," she breathed.

She looked for his hand, and his fingers found hers.

His hold on her fingers was soft, warm, reassuring... it felt like a fire in the middle of a snow storm.

"Is there anyone you miss in your family?" she asked him, their glances still set on the grey clouds drifting away.

"I miss my little brother," he answered, his voice barely more than a whisper. "It wasn't his fault. He was too young. I should have protected him more. Maybe... maybe he wouldn't have wanted to fit into their world if I had been there for him."

"You never speak about all that."

"It hurts."

She looked at him again. She had never seen so much sadness in his grey eyes. She was used to see a joyful clown. But now he looked like a broken boy.

"It feels good to know that you're not the only one who's life is completely fucked up," she smiled.

He looked at her again, smiling as well.

"You're right, it does feel good not to be alone."

"But... you know... your act of chivalry has one disadvantage for you."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Really? And what could that disadvantage be?"

"You lost your bet. In less than three hours, that's a record."

He laughed, a clear, loud laugh that echoed throughout the corridor.

Suddenly, the mischievous Gryffindor was back...

"I didn't lose my bet," he said. "We made a bet about pranks. And I didn't do any prank yet."

"But you got yourself into trouble."

"That wasn't a prank. And as I got into trouble because of you, I'm surprised you dare try to cheat with this argument."

"I'm not cheating."

"You are trying to cheat, McKinnon."

She smiled.

"Alright... but actually, I have a favour to ask you."

"A favour?" he asked, surprised.

"I'd really appreciate it if you could set up a prank against the Slytherins. You know... to make..."

"To avenge you?"

"Yeah..."

"That would make me lose my bet. I can't do that."

"What if I withdraw?"

He grinned, a cocky smirk on his face.

"If you want to buy me a drink, McKinnon, you don't have to use our bet as an excuse, you know?"

She softly punched his upper arm.

"And I thought I had been wounded enough for your beautiful eyes for one day..." he laughed, faking outrage.

She couldn't help but laugh as well.

"Don't tempt me, I could try to use your methods, instead of asking nicely. I could punch my way out of this bet."

Sirius doubled in laughter.

"You're too scary for me to try to provoke you, McKinnon."

"Is that sarcasm?"

"100%."

"You're such a pain the arse."

They were laughing so much, they could barely breathe.

"Come on, could you do that for me?" she asked as they finally calmed down enough to speak.

"Then you withdraw, and I win our bet?"

She sighed.

"That's a deal, Black."

He grinned.

"I can't wait till our first trip to Diagon Alley," he said. "I'll make you buy the best firewhiskey they have."

They laughed again, their laughter flying across the corridor and crashing against the walls of stone. It seemed that the sound was waking up the deserted, dusty corridor. It seemed that the sky was not that much grey anymore.

They hadn't noticed it, but they were still holding hands.

It felt like they were not that much alone anymore.

Maybe the world was not completely fucked up after all.


	4. What Being A Head Boy Implies

**Here is a new chapter! I reckoned we needed a bit of Jily in this one ;)**

 **Thank you so much to Lara.x and Whowhwohwak for your reviews! And to answer your question Whowhwohak, yes, it's going to be a long fic. I'm going to write about the whole year, so it should be quite long.**

 **Next update on Friday.**

 **Hope you like this new chapter, and please, tell me what you think about it :)**

* * *

 **What Being a Head Boy Implies**

He was late. He knew Lily would be mad at him. He didn't want her to feel like he was letting her down on the very first day, but he had had to take news of Sirius. And well... he also had to make sure to tease his best friend with his brand new relationship with McKinnon. He reckoned that if Sirius had wanted to seduce her, he would have done so long ago. But still, teasing Sirius was one of his favourite things in the world, he couldn't waste an opportunity, could he?

Now he was running down the corridor, hurrying throughout the school. He had to find Lily at the cafeteria. He took a look at his watch.

17:10.

They were supposed to meet at 5 pm.

Fuck...

She was going to kill him.

Here it was, the end of James Potter.

He bumped into a wall, failing at turning at the corner, and he resumed his running, massaging his painful arm.

He looked at the time again.

17:13.

He could see the picture perfectly.

Murderer : Lily Evans

Weapon : Wand

Cause of Death : Broken skull after having been cursed so hard he flew across the whole city and finished hitting the Elizabeth Tower, staying stuck into the giant clock.

At least, the authorities would have the precise hour of his death...

17:15

And on his tomb, he knew perfectly what Sirius would write : "Here rests James Potter, the only trouble maker who managed to get Head Boy when he had had more than 300 hours of detentions over the years. Well done, Prongs. You fucked up your reputation."

He made a mental note to make sure to erase Sirius from his last will.

17:17

Finally, he reached the door of the cafeteria. He stopped on the threshold, taking a moment to partially catch his breath. But he didn't have the chance.

The door was open, as always. Apparently, the cafeteria was always open. During your two last years, you could always have fruits and drinks, and most students used the room to study when they had to work in groups, as they couldn't talk in the library. So when he leaned against the doorframe, and looked inside the room, he saw her there, sitting near the window, looking at the grounds. The light was soft, pale after the rains of the previous hours. Her hair looked like a halo of flames, her eyes greener than the grass in spring.

He couldn't catch his breath, his heart had stopped anyway.

He reckoned he needed to correct the circumstances of his death.

Murderer : Lily Evans

Weapon : that little smile on her lips

Cause of death : Heart attack after being awestruck

Engraving on his tomb : "Here rests James Potter, who's heart was too fragile to face Lily Evans' beauty. Well done, Prongs. You're a fucking moron."

He struggled to swallow, trying to calm down the butterflies in his stomach, but it wasn't working at all.

Hell, he was so pathetic when it came to her.

He walked into the room, coming closer to her. Now, he could see the shy freckles that stained her cheekbones and nose.

Hell, she was so...

"Hey," he breathed as he reached her table.

She started, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he went on, sitting next to her. "I was talking with Sirius. I had to check if he was alright after what happened at lunchtime."

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "I was late too actually. I spoke to Marls. I just arrived two minutes ago."

James let out a relieved sigh.

"Okay, I was afraid you'd be mad at me for being late."

"It's okay."

She picked up her quill and a piece of parchment.

"Alright, we have to pair up the prefects and decide when they will do their patrols. The ones in their 7th year will have to be paired together, 'cause they won't start their patrols until we're back at Hogwarts."

"All right."

"Some extra prefects have been chosen by the Heads of House so that there are enough prefects in Hogwarts. McGonagall gave me a list of their names. We'll go to Hogwarts on Sunday, and have a meeting with the prefects. We'll have to make sure the meetings fit with the Quidditch practices. Do you know when you will do the tryouts?"

"Probably this week."

"You have to tell McGonagall so that she can put a note in the Common Room. You should do that as soon as possible."

"I'll give her tomorrow."

"Okay. So, first, we have to do the pairings, that's the most urgent thing we have to do."

"What if we pair up two people who hate each other together?"

"They have until Sunday to change the pairings, they'll tell us by then. As long as they mix up with other houses, it's fine."

James nodded. He took a deep breath, before diving, trying to sound very natural.

"Do we have to do rounds too? As Head Boy and Head Girl?"

"Yep, we do," she nodded, reading the list of the prefects' names.

"Hmm... Do you think we should be paired together?"

She looked suspiciously at him.

"I mean... between Quidditch and Head meetings and the NEWTs... It's gonna be a bit complicated to get organized, don't you think?" he explained. "If you add to that two different moments for ours rounds, it's gonna be impossible for us to talk about Head duties."

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes narrowed, trying to read through him.

"Potter?" she said in a firm tone.

"Yeah Evans?" he answered in his most innocent tone, that he often used with McGonagall when she caught him and his friends red-handed.

"It's not one of your twisted way to ask me out, is it?"

"Of course not."

She clenched her jaws, glaring at him now.

He was awful at lying. He had always been awful at lying. His cheekbones always reddened when he lied. It was discreet, almost invisible, but when you learned to see this detail, it was impossible to be fooled by the boy.

And as a Gryffindor girl, it was a question of survival for her and her friends to know how to read through his and Sirius's lies. She had learned the trick long ago.

"I won't go out with you, Potter. I thought I had been clear over the years..."

"That's not what..."

"I won't go out with you, not now, not ever."

"I know that."

"I told you once that I would rather go out with the Giant Squid, and I meant it."

"I know you did."

"So..."

"So... that's not why I proposed the two of us to be paired together."

She slightly wrinkled her nose, clearly not convinced. She seemed to think for a moment.

"If you want, you can still pair me with Remus," James added, trying to reassure her. "I mean... he's one of my best friends, I'm not going to complain."

Actually he would. He would cy all night long until Sirius would get bored and cast a sleeping spell on him. And he would hate Remus till the end of his days.

Actually, no, not until the end of his days. Moony was too kind, he could never stay mad at him for more than a day. But James would stop talking to him for an entire day, that was for sure. Even if Remus didn't have anything to do with it, it didn't matter, he would have to pass his nerves one someone eventually.

"Actually, you have a point," Lily sighed, tearing James away from his thoughts. "With Quidditch, we'll never manage if we don't do our rounds together. All right then, let' do that."

"We don't have to if it's a problem for you."

"No, no that's all right. And if you actually do ask me out during one of our rounds I'll attach you and leave you during the entire night hanging at the Astronomy Tower. Is that clear?"

He smiled. This crooked smile of his that annoyed her so much.

Oh Merlin...

"That's a deal, Evans," and his smile turned into a grin.

She nodded, writing their two names next to each other on the parchment.

It took them half an hour to pair up the prefects (James hated the idea of pairing Gryffindors and Slytherins together, it seemed like a form of torture to him, and it took a while to Lily to convince him). Organizing the rounds took them 20 minutes more. And during all this time, they didn't fight, nor shouted. He didn't give her one of his lines, and she didn't get irritated every time he opened his mouth.

They both reckoned that their relationship was improving.

"We'll see about the events we have to organize with the Muggles tomorrow after lunch," she told him as they were folding the parchments.

"We could meet here. I don't know for you, but I don't know my way around quite yet," he answered.

"No, me neither."

"Have you been to the dorms yet?"

She shook her head.

"Do you think we'll have dorms for ourselves, like in Hogwarts?"

She shook her head again.

"I don't think so."

He struggled to hide his disappointment. Sharing dorms with Lily was one of the rare good sides of being Head Boy...

As they both made a movement to take the quill that laid on the table, their hands collided, their fingers touching softly.

They stared at each other for a moment, perfectly still.

Lily saw James biting his tongue, probably to avoid one of his cocky remarks to pass his lips. He slowly took his hand away from hers.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's okay," she mumbled as well, blushing.

Somehow, they couldn't manage to look away from each other.

She hated him. Hell, he was so fucking annoying all the time.

But... she had to admit he had beautiful hazel eyes...

She cleared her voice, picking up the quill and finally tearing herself away from his stare.

"Let's go. I have to find Marlene before diner time," she said.

James nodded, closing his bag while he tried to slow down his racing heart.

"And I have to see the boys."

"All right then..."

They walked out of the cafeteria together, and stopped before parting in the corridor.

"Could you make sure that all the boys have their trunks tonight?" she asked James. "I'll check for the girls."

"Sure," James nodded.

She brushed a lock of her red hair behind her ear, making his heart jump against his ribs.

"See you later then," she said.

She sounded like she was uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"See you, Evans."

She turned on her heels and hurried down the corridor.

James stared at her as she walked away. He heaved a sigh, throwing his head backwards. He had managed to behave the entire time. He reckoned that their colliding hands had fucked up everything though. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

He missed the image of Lily turning one last time towards him before disappearing around the corner.

* * *

"I can't believe you spent all this time talking with Sirius."

Marlene rolled her eyes.

"Alice, we just talked."

"First you make a bet," Alice went on, ignoring her friend's remark. "And then you spend two hours talking with him alone in a corridor."

"Yes, you're right, we talked. He happens to understand my situation way better than anyone else does."

"He's not an orphan," Alice reminded her friend. "And it's Black we're talking about. The guy who tried to put almost all the girls he has ever encountered in his bed. He's _the_ heartbreaker of Hogwarts."

"I know that. I'm missing your point though."

"I'm just saying that he's not the most reliable bloke on this school."

"Well, of course, now you're going to brag about your boyfriend," Marlene rolled her eyes.

"No..."

"That's what you always end up doing, Alice. As if Frank was perfect."

"He is though."

"For you. Not for us," Marlene replied, pointing at herself and Lily.

"She has a point," Lily nodded.

Alice didn't reply, merely planting her fork into her potato.

Suddenly, Sirius Black was standing right next to the girls.

"Hi there!" he exclaimed merrily.

Behind him, his four friends were waiting for him at the door of the cafeteria. He ignored Lily's and Alice's surprised look, and directly turned to Marlene.

"Our faithful Captain will set up the trainings for this Sunday. You'll have to be there, we need a chaser."

Marlene nodded.

"What time?"

"No idea for now. But don't plan anything for that day."

"All right."

"Oh... and I've sent James on a mission to find when the first trip to London is supposed to take place."

Alice and Lily exchanged a curious glance. But Marlene merely raised an eyebrow, trying to refrain a smile.

"And... how could that be any of _my_ concerns?"

"You owe me a drink," he replied with a cocky smile.

"And I have a bottle of firewhiskey in my trunk."

It was his time to raise an eyebrow.

"I guess you won't need to wait for the trip to London to honour your debt then."

"That will depend. You never mentioned _when_ I was supposed to pay you a drink."

"Why do I reckon that this will depend on my performance as a trouble maker?"

"Let's say that I'll be more inclined to pay you a drink if you avenge me well."

His typical crooked smile appeared on his lips, his eyes shining with mischief.

"Is that a bet?" he asked, his voice daring.

She shrugged.

"Why not?" she accepted.

"You'll give me that drink within 3 days after the prank if I win."

"And if you lose, you'll have to wait for London."

"That's a deal."

They shook hands.

Lily cleared her throat.

"I'm afraid I've misheard you..." she said, looking at the two smiling Gryffindors. "Did I hear about _pranks_?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Evans... stop being a prefect for a second."

"I'm not a prefect anymore. I'm Head Girl."

"Even worse..."

"We can't take the risk of creating any incident with Muggles, Black!"

"I know that. That's why I'm not going to target Muggles. Only the good old cockroaches that have been transformed into Slytherins."

"Black..."

"Evans, you should trust us really..."

"Wait... _us!_ Don't drag Potter into this."

Sirius chuckled, raising an eyebrow.

"Since when do you care so much about James getting in trouble?"

"I don't _care_ about him. But he's Head Boy. And that's a lot of work. With the NEWTs, I can't handle everything on my own. I need him to stay in this school."

"Yeah... I believe you..."

"If you don't want to die young, I'd advise you to shut your mouth."

"Relax, Ginger Devil. I won't have a bad influence on our deal old James. He's already good at jumping into trouble anyway."

He ignored Lily as she opened her mouth to answer, and turned towards McKinnon again.

"Good night, McKinnon."

"'Night, Black."

And Sirius turned on his heels, whistling merrily, joining his friends and walking out of the cafeteria.

Alice and Lily stared at their friend.

"What?" Marlene asked innocently, eating a piece of bread.

"What the hell is this all about?" Lily asked her, glaring.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about. What is this whole story of pranks all about?"

* * *

"What... you made another bet with McKinnon?"

Remus stared at him, his reprobating look plastered on his face. This look he used every time Sirius or James would misbehave.

Which meant every single day, often several times a day.

"Yep," Sirius nodded. "She asked me to avenge her from the Slytherins. And don't give me that look, Moony. I'm being chivalrous, like a real Gryffindor. I answer to the call of a damsel in distress."

"Chivalry my arse. Marlene is everything but a damsel in distress."

"Hey, you were not against setting a prank earlier today," Sirius reminded the werewolf.

Remus blinked.

"I've never said I was against the idea of setting a prank against the Slytherins."

"But...?"

"But I'm worried about your intentions towards Marlene. She's very kind, you know?"

"I know. And my intentions are to win this bet and get a free drink."

"You and firewhiskey..."

"An old love story."

"An awful idea," Remus corrected his friend.

The door of the boy's dorm suddenly opened on Frank Longbottom and Caradoc Dearborn. Sirius stopped them, waving his hand before him.

"Watch out! Big prank in preparation. If you want to sleep, put a sound-proofing spell on your curtains. Or you get out."

"What do you think we did the second we set a foot in this dorm?" Frank asked back, before walking towards his bed.

The beds were four-posters, very similar to the ones at Hogwarts actually, except that the covers and the curtains were not red and golden, and the beds were not set up in circle, but aligned against the two longer walls of the rectangular room.

Eleven beds were set in this dormitory, for only six boys in Gryffindor. None of the Marauders was very happy at the idea of sharing their dorm with new boys, but it didn't look like they had a choice anyway. They guessed that the five remaining bed would belong to Muggles, but they had not arrived yet.

The four Marauders had taken the four beds the further away from the door, and were now sitting cross-legged on the floor between their beds, in the middle of the room.

"You all have all your things, by the way?" James asked the newcomers.

They both nodded, frowning.

"Sure, why?" Caradoc asked.

"Lily asked me to check if all the boys had their trunks."

"That's why you disappeared after we arrived here?" Remus asked his friend.

"Yeah, I went to check for the other houses."

All the dorms were set in the same corridor. And James had to admit that he didn't like having his dorm so close to the Slytherins. But again, they didn't have much choice anyway.

"Oh... so Ginger Devil is making sure you're acting like a good little Head Boy..." Sirius mocked his friend.

Sirius received a Bertie Bott's Jelly Bean in the face in response.

"I have to behave this year," James told him. "Because it's my last chance with Lily, and because Dumbledore seems to rely on me for everything to be fine with the Muggles..."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Sirius interrupted his best friend, his eyes wide in horror. "You're not going to abandon us, are you?"

James rolled his eyes.

"Of course not, Pads. We are _the_ mischief makers of Hogwarts. And that won't change. I just... need to deal with Head Duties as well. And Quidditch. And my NEWTs. And Lily..."

"If you turn into a prefect this year, I swear on Merlin's beard James Potter I'll turn you into a toad and throw you in a cauldron full of snakes."

"Hey, _I'm_ a prefect," Remus protested. "See, you can plan pranks _and_ be a figure of authority."

"You're not a figure of authority, Remus," Sirius corrected him. "You're the kindest bloke in Hogwarts."

"You know what I meant."

"Sirius, I swear, I won't turn into an angel," James reassured him.

The door of their dorm suddenly opened, filling the room with the sound of laughs.

The five Muggle boys who were studying with them entered, stopping their conversation as they entered the dormitory and saw the Wizards.

"Well, looks like we're gonna share our dorms together as well," a blond boy, named Richard, said.

"Looks like it, yeah," James nodded.

The four Marauders exchanged a glance. They couldn't prepare their prank if the Muggles were around...

"So... how was your first day?" Joey asked them.

"Fine enough," James nodded.

"We heard about a fight, is that true?" a dark haired boy, named Albert, asked.

"Well... depends on what you heard," Sirius replied.

"We heard you all had been fighting against another group from your school. And that you were punished quite badly for it."

"Not so badly," Sirius replied. "I just got detentions."

"Why did you fight? What happened?" asked Joey, eager to know about the story.

Sirius merely shrugged.

"I just punched a guy in the face."

"Why?"

"He said something not so kind to a friend of mine."

"So you punched him?"

"It's more complicated than that."

"The rumor says it was because of a girl," Richard said, letting himself fall on the bed closer to the door. "What did the guy do? It's about your girl?"

"Marlene is not _my_ girl," Sirius replied. "Lestrange mocked her on her family."

"And?"

"And her entire family was killed during the summer."

"Oh shit..."

A long silence settled into the room.

"Talking about girls," Joey suddenly blurted out, "are there any girls from your school who are... taken? I mean... this ginger girl looks..."

"Absolutely not available," James finished for him, glaring.

"You two are together?"

"No."

"But you're trying to make her go out with you."

"Yep."

"So..."

"So if you get near her I'll turn you into a cockroach."

"Can you do that?"

James picked up a Jelly Bean, his wand, and a second later, a cockroach was running across the room.

Joey struggled to swallow.

"Alright, maybe not this one then..."

"And Alice is my girlfriend," Frank warned the Muggle boys.

"Alice? The brunette?" Richard asked.

"Yes."

"What about the blond?"

He looked at Sirius, but the boy merely shrugged.

"I don't reckon she's going out with anyone at the moment."

"You're not together then."

"Of course not," Sirius snorted.

"Well, I don't know... you punched a guy for her."

"We're not together."

There was a knock on the door.

"Turn off your lights," a woman told them. "It's curfew."

The Muggles heaved a sigh and walked towards their beds.

"Who's that?" Peter asked.

"That's Mrs. Peddington," Richard answer."She's the groundkeeper. She's..."

"A pain in the arse," Joey finished in his friend's stead.

"Hell... A woman version of our good old Filch?" Remus asked his friends.

"And I thought we would be rid of this guy," James sighed, standing up.

"So... there's a curfew in the dorms?" Sirius asked the Muggles, standing up as well.

"Yep, 10 pm. And everybody is woken up at half past six," Joey nodded.

"That sucks."

"Welcome to Saint Peter Prison."

James carefully waited for the Muggles to be talking together, before turning towards his three friends.

"We won't be able to talk about pranks in the dorm," James whispered.

"What do you propose?" Sirius asked.

"I propose we explore our brand new school," James answered with a grin, his eyes shining with mischief.

"Tonight?"

"Why not?"

"I'm not sure Lily would be very pleased if she knew the Head Boy was breaking curfew, and walking throughout the school in the middle of the night."

"Lily doesn't need to know that. And don't you think that I should know my way around this school, as Head Boy?"

"I think you should know every corridor."

"Exactly."

"And secret passages, so you can save students faster all around the school."

"You're perfectly right."

"And every way to get out of the school too, to prevent students from escaping."

"Absolutely."

"Oh... no, don't tell me you're thinking about what _I_ think..." Remus breathed.

Sirius and James looked at each other, grinning.

"We need a Map!" they both whispered in unison.

"Oh Merlin... we're gonna get ourselves in trouble," Remus moaned.

"Relax, Moony. We'll wait till they're all asleep," James said, nodding towards the Muggles. "And then, we'll get out, using the invisibility cloak."

* * *

"Peter, stop walking on my damn foot!"

"Not my fault you have big feet, Padfoot."

"I beg your pardon? My feet are perfect, thank you."

"Moony, hurry up."

"We shouldn't be here... You're Head Boy for Merlin's sake!"

"Oh... damn prefect..."

"I don't reckon you were complaining on the fact that I'm a prefect when I used it to get you out of trouble."

"Shh... I heard something."

They all froze, listening closely. None would doubt Sirius's senses. He spent so much time in his Animagus form, his senses as a human had sharpened immensely.

He guided his friends towards the wall, getting out of the way of whoever could walk down the corridor. Outside, the moon and the stars were barely visible with all the clouds that covered the heavens. Remus made the light at the tip of his wand disappear.

Peter opened his mouth to speak, but Sirius shushed him, placing his palm on his friend's mouth.

This time, the sound of footsteps was loud enough for all the boys to hear.

They patiently waited until a little, quite fat woman would appear at the corner of the corridor. She was holding a torchlight in her hand, and seemed to be patrolling all around the school. They guessed it must have been this Mrs... Peddi... something that the Muggle boys had told them about earlier that night.

And indeed, she looked a bit like Filch. She had the same grumpy expression on her face. Except that she was three times bigger than him, that she wore big glasses that made her eyes look like the eyes of an insect, and her blond hair was attached in a high bun that was bigger than her face.

Sirius bit fiercely his lip to avoid his laughter to be heard. And he could feel that James had the same reaction, as he felt his friend shaking slightly next to him.

The Muggle passed slowly before them without noticing the hidden boys, and she disappeared around the next corner, climbing up a flight of stairs.

The boys slowly walked in the opposite direction, waiting until they had walked down a flight of stairs to finally light up their wands again and allow themselves to whisper again.

"Oh Merlin!" James chuckled, chocking with his laughter. "What the hell was _that_?"

"I thought Filch was ugly, but hell, she's even worse," Sirius nodded, laughing as well.

"She seems to be as bad-tempered as he is," Remus nodded.

They were now in a corridor downstairs, not far from the grounds.

"What time is it?" Peter asked.

Remus checked his watch.

"Almost two in the morning."

"I'm starting to be exhausted."

"You're always tired anyway," Sirius replied.

"He's got a point though, I'm tired as well," Remus told his friends.

"Well, let's see what we managed to cover tonight," James proposed, and Sirius picked up the piece of parchment he had folded into his pocket.

"We have all the area around the dorms," he said. "We also have the fourth, third and second floor of the left wing. And most of the second floor of the right wing."

James nodded slowly.

"This school is much more little than Hogwarts. I reckon that at this rate, we could have finished to explore it in two, maybe three nights."

Sirius nodded.

"We'll have to think about labels as well, to avoid this Mrs. Pedd... something."

"Peddy sounds good."

The four boys chuckled.

"Alright, we also have to talk about that prank against the Slytherins," James reminded his friends.

"We could... turn all their hair green," proposed Peter.

"How old are you again?" Sirius replied harshly. "Plus, brewing a potion is too long, we need to do it quickly, set the record straight."

"What about making their things disappear during class?" Remus proposed.

James and Sirius slowly nodded.

"That could be fun," James said, thinking hard.

But a grin formed on Sirius's face.

"Oh... Prongs... I'm a genius. A fucking genius. You're going to love that..."

"What?"

"They're keeping our owls in the school, right?"

James stared at his best friend, a smile creeping up on his lips.

"What could you possibly want to do with owls?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"We'll need owl treats," Sirius told James.

"I don't dare to imagine what your crazy brain has invented again," Remus shook his head.

Sirius shushed his friends once again.

"I heard something again."

"We definitely need a map..." Peter whispered.

The noise of a breaking window pierced the night.

"What was that?" Remus asked softly.

"Not dear old Peddy," Sirius breathed.

"What do we do?" Peter asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"We go take a look," Sirius and James answered in unison.

Remus, James and Sirius all started to walk towards the noise, dragging Peter with them.

"Are you sure we should do that?" Peter asked.

"Yes, we're sure," Remus replied, shushing his friend.

They hurried towards the grounds.

"Can you smell that?" Sirius asked.

"It smells like... something's burning," James nodded.

They hurried even more towards the source of the noise, Remus pulling Peter with him by now.

They froze when they heard the sound of voices.

"Come on, hurry up!"

"We must get out of here!"

"It's working! Look!"

"Yes, I can see it's working! That's why we need to get out before _we_ are the ones to burn, instead of these _monsters_."

The four boys turned a corner, and had only time to catch a glimpse of the shape of a man jumping by a window and onto the street.

On the other side of the corridor, the wooden door leading to the grounds had been broken...

...And was burning.


	5. Sparks and Blazes

**Here comes a new chapter!**

 **Thank you so much for your reviews GreTheresa, you're the best!**

 **I'm going on a trip for two weeks in the middle of the mountains, which means that I will probably not have any access to Wifi. So I will probably not be able to post anything for two weeks.**

 **Hope you like this chapter, and please, tell me what you think about it. Don't forget to leave a review ;)**

* * *

 **Sparks and Blazes**

"Merlin..."

The flames were licking the ceiling of the corridor and spreading to the grounds. A tree was already on fire.

"Sirius, warn McGonagall. We guys will try to contain this," James said, using the same tone he used to command his Quidditch team.

"The dorms are right above this part of the school," Remus noticed. "On the second floor."

"Warn the Headmasters as well," James said. "And the students."

"Which means _everyone_ ," Sirius mumbled in answer.

Sirius thought about a way to warn _everyone_ in the school. And he reckoned that the best way was to make a lot of noise...

Seconds later, fireworks were flying all across the grounds, exploding loudly, so loudly that the four boys could barely handle the noise, and the windowpanes shook.

While Sirius was warning the school, the three other boys were trying to drown the fire. But even if they used all their strengths, it was barely enough to contain the fire.

As the first lights were glimmering at the windows, Sirius stopped his fireworks, and walked closer to the fire to help his friends. He stood beside James, pointed his wand at the fire and the next second water was flowing out of his wand. He could feel the heat emanating from the flames, and he struggled to keep his eyes opened despite the smoke that burnt his throat and eyes. He felt tears flowing down his cheeks in response of the heat and smoke around him.

Above their heads, they could hear shouts and cries coming from the dorms.

From the corner of his eyes, James saw something red at one of the windows, like the radiance coming from a spark. He didn't need to turn his head and look more closely at it to know that it was Lily looking down at the fire.

Within two minutes the Headmistress of Saint Peter and several muggle teachers and Professor McGonagall had joined the boys. Students were hurrying out of the school, using the main entrance that was far enough from the flames for the students to flee this way safely. They were guided by some teachers, and Peddy, who seemed terrified, her already gigantic eyes made even bigger with fear. But a few students didn't follow the others outside, and headed towards the fire, despite the teachers' orders.

Soon, the Gryffindors were all there as well.

"No, all the students get out of the school," the Headmistress ordered to the newcomers. "You were to follow your teacher..."

But Lily stopped listening, and she stepped next to James, joining the four Marauders in their effort to stop the flames.

Marlene walked next to Sirius, and joined the fight against the furnace as well, and soon, all the Gryffindors had joined them, under the command of Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Lupin, you and Mr. Pettigrew will aim at the ceiling, making sure the flames will not spread there," their teacher commanded, and the two boys immediately obeyed.

"You four," she added to James, Sirius, Lily and Marlene, "aim at the tree. The rest of us will take care of the corridor."

Within just a few minutes, the fire had died out, drowned under all the water the Wizards and Witches had thrown at it.

Of the tree was left only a black skeleton in the shape of the tall oak that had been standing there, the branches darkened and broken by the flames hiding the moon and the stars, even blacker than the night itself. The door and a part of the corridor were black as well, partially burnt and destroyed, although it didn't seem that the structure of the building was endangered. The damage seemed superficial. No one had been hurt.

But as he looked up at the windows of the dorms, now empty, Sirius knew that it could have been terrible. All students were asleep by then, they would have likely had no time to flee when they would have noticed the flames already on them.

He shook his head, pushing these thoughts away, and he stared at McGonagall for a while.

She would learn that they had been roaming throughout the school, and they would be in _big_ trouble...

But she didn't say a word for now, and merely turned to the Muggle Headmistress.

"We need to call for Professor Dumbledore," she said. "I'll call him, using the fireplace in your office."

"These children will come with us," Mrs. Trumbley added, looking at the Gryffindor boys.

Sirius and Remus exchanged a worried glance. Hell, they were going to get in so much trouble...

When they looked for James's eyes, they found him looking worriedly at Lily, while she was coughing.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice gentle.

She nodded.

"It's the smoke," she said in a low voice, broken by how dry her throat was.

James quickly summoned a glass of water and handed it to her.

"Here, drink up."

She drank a huge gulp of water, but coughed again, despite the soothing feeling the cold liquid had brought to her throat. James tapped softly her back while she coughed, and when she looked up at him, his eyes red and wet because of the smoke, he seemed earnestly full of concern for her.

"Breathe deep," he said. "Breathe deep..."

She nodded, calming down.

"I'm fine, Potter."

Her voice was still hoarse, but she didn't cough again.

She took a step away from him, so that his hand would not rest on her back anymore, and he blushed fiercely, putting both his hands behind his back, like a little child caught red-handed doing something mischievous.

"I..." he stuttered.

But he was interrupted by Mrs. Trumbley.

"You four," she called, pointing at the Marauders. "Follow me."

Sirius winced.

"You're in trouble," Marlene said.

"I knew that, thank you," Sirius snapped back.

He immediately regretted his tone. He heaved a sigh.

"I didn't mean to be rude."

"Come on, now," Mrs. Trumbley called again.

"Good luck," Marlene told him.

He answered with a sad smile, before following the Headmistress, along with his three friends.

They were about to be murdered by McGonagall for that...

* * *

The Headmistress had called the police. Normal reflex, although when Dumbledore arrived he didn't seem very happy about the news. The police had been insistent on the fact that no one was to ask anything to the four boys before their arrival, so the boys were merely waiting in silence for the policemen to arrive. McGonagall was looking sharply at them the whole time. As if they didn't already know that they were doomed...

Finally, two men in uniform arrived. The chief was a ginger man around forty years old, with a very impressive moustache. The four boys raised their eyebrows when a third man entered the room.

He was limping, using a massive stick to walk. His fake blue eye turned in all directions. His face was covered with scars and his brown, long coat brushed the ground.

He was famous for his relentless fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and the boys were impressed to see Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody with their own eyes.

They shook hands with the Headmasters and Professor McGonagall, before taking a chair (that Dumbledore had summoned for them) and stared at the four boys.

The Muggle detective picked up a pen, a notebook and started to write.

"I'm detective Baton," he mumbled, his moustache twitching as he spoke in a cavernous voice. "I'm the one in charge of this investigation. This is officer Padmey," he added, nodding towards his Muggle colleague.

He turned towards Moody.

"And... this is..."

"Alastor Moody," Mad-Eye answered, his magical eye looking at James, Peter and Remus while he stared at Sirius.

"I will need your names," Baton went on, ready to write them down on his notebook.

But Moody pointed at Sirius before the boys could answer.

"You're Sirius Black, aren't you?"

"Err... Yes, I am," Sirius answered, quite taken aback.

"Don't be so surprised, I investigated on your father," Moody added as Sirius looked at him questioningly. "Investigated on many people working at the Ministry, in fact. A real toad, you're father. Absolutely unbearable."

"On this we agree," Sirius nodded, looking down at the ground.

"And you fled to the Potters..." the Auror went on, now looking intensely at James.

"Yes, he did," James nodded.

"After having met your father, I understand why you did that," he told Sirius.

The boy smiled. Moody looked rather grumpy, and saying that he was direct was obviously a euphemism. But Sirius liked the man. He seemed to be reliable, someone you could trust.

"And you two?" the Auror asked Remus and Peter.

"Remus Lupin."

"And Peter Pettigrew, Sir."

The inspector asked again Sirius and James for their names, and glowered at Moody.

Clearly, he wasn't too please to have to work with Aurors...

"So... tell us everything," Moody asked the boys, approaching his chair from them.

"They are suspects," the detective told Moody, whispering loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. "We should interview them separately."

"We didn't do anything!" Sirius replied.

"We tried to stop the fire from spreading across the school!" James added.

Soon the four boys were talking at the same time and no one could understand anything.

"Boys, enough," McGonagall stopped them, before turning towards the policemen. "These boys are completely innocent. I am certain of it."

"It could be accidental," Baton argued.

"Why don't we let them tell us their version of the story?" Dumbledore proposed.

"We should lead the interviews separately," Baton insisted.

"These boys are not criminals," McGonagall defended her students. "And if they had caused this kind of terrible thing unintentionally, they would have admitted their guilt right away. They are Gryffindors, for Merlin's sake!"

Dumbledore turned towards James.

"What did you see?"

"We heard something strange, like... a window being broken," James answered. "We thought there was something wrong."

"So we went there, to see what was going on," Sirius nodded.

"Why did you not warn a teacher?" Baton asked.

"Well... we just heard a noise," Remus shrugged.

"When we arrived, people were talking, saying they had to hurry. We just had enough time to see a man jumping through the window."

"You didn't see anything else?" Moody asked.

But they shook their heads.

"When we saw the fire, we didn't try to go after the men who had been running away," Sirius said. "When we noticed that the fire was spreading fast, and that it was right under the dorms, I used fireworks to wake up everyone in the school."

"And we all tried to stop the fire," James nodded. "Then the teachers arrived."

"Where were you when you heard the breaking window?" Baton asked. "Why were you the only ones to hear it?"

The four boys looked at each other cautiously.

"You must tell the truth, children," Dumbledore said softly.

They sheepishly looked at McGonagall.

"We were not in the dorms," James admitted.

"Where were you?"

"Downstairs," Sirius answered. "We wanted to explore the school."

"Why didn't Mrs. Peddington see you?" Mrs. Trumbley asked.

"We hid when he heard her coming."

"But you hurried towards the noise of a breaking window? How could you know it wasn't this... Mrs. Pedddington?" Baton asked.

"We hid because we had heard the sound of footsteps," James answered. "A breaking window is a very different noise. It sounded suspicious, so we went to take a look."

"It was very reckless of you."

"This is not much surprising coming from these ones," McGonagall shook her head.

Sirius and James gave her a cocky grin, and McGonagall couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"What did these men say exactly?" Moody asked the boys.

"One man told the other to hurry up. And that it was working. I guess they were talking about the fire," James said.

"Did you see them using Magic?" Baton asked.

"No."

"Did you hear anything else?"

"They said they needed to hurry. They talked about killing 'these monsters'."

"That could be some of your Death Eaters talking about us Muggles," Baton said.

"And that could also be some Muggle from the Free Minds Movement talking about Wizards and Witches," Moody replied. "There is no need in trying to guess. The facts will speak by themselves."

"We may need to talk to you again," Baton told the boys. "You cannot leave town."

"They are not to leave the school anyway," Moody pointed out.

The detective merely glowered at him, before standing up and walking out of the room.

Moody heaved a sigh, before shaking hands with Dumbledore.

"Thank you again for helping us, Alastor," Dumbledore told the Auror with a smile.

"Don't worry, Albus. I'll take care of this whole thing," Moody reassured him.

He shook hands with McGonagall and Mrs. Trumbley as well, before turning again towards the boys.

"Take care of yourselves, boys."

And he walked out of the office.

McGonagall cleared her throat, and the four boys looked down at the ground in unison.

Here... the storm was coming...

"So... I thought I had been clear," McGonagall said slowly, her tone as strong and cold as steel, "about you and your pranks."

"We were not doing any prank actually," Sirius defended himself and his friends.

"Mr. Black, stay silent."

Sirius's mouth immediately closed.

"Not only have you broken the rules that had been clearly established, but you put yourself in danger and acted recklessly. And it is the second time I have to have this kind of conversation with some of you."

Sirius winced, bending his head even lower as he felt her stare upon him.

Hell, that was bad... He just didn't want to be expelled. He couldn't do that to the Potters...

"This kind of behaviour is unacceptable, especially coming from the Head Boy, who is supposed to be a model for the other students here."

James lowered his head a bit more as well. He just hoped his parents would not send a howler... Merlin please, not a howler...

"Under these circumstances, thirty points will be taken away from Gryffindor for each of you."

They all looked up at her, wincing.

"But..."

They stared at her, their eyes full of hope.

"As your reckless behaviour led to save the lives of your classmates, and that you undoubtedly showed great courage at fighting this fire... no detentions will be given to you."

The four boys heaved a sigh.

"And fifty points each will be given to Gryffindor."

They smiled at her.

"But I would erase these smiles off your face if you don't want me to change my mind," McGonagall added, and it was hard for her to refrain a laugh as the boys' smiles disappeared in the blink of an eye. "The dorms have been checked, and are perfectly safe. All the students are back in their dorms now. And you should go to bed as well."

She turned to Dumbledore.

"Unless there is anything else you want to discuss with them, Professor?"

Dumbledore's electric blue eyes jumped from a boy to the other, a proud and rather mischievous smile on his face.

"No, I guess they should go rest now. I'll merely add another twenty points for Gryffindor to the other students who helped fighting this terrible fire."

The four boys stood up and started towards the door. But as Sirius was turning the doorknob, Dumbledore spoke again, his voice full of humour.

"Oh, and it will not be necessary to hide this time, children. You can go to your dormitory without fear of Mrs. Peddington, all right Mr. Potter?"

James nodded slowly, sharing a glance with Sirius. He struggled not to touch the pocket of his robes where he had hidden his invisibility cloak.

Hell, Dumbledore knew about his cloak...

"Yes, Professor," James answered.

"Go straight to bed now, children."

They all nodded, and walked out of the office. Sirius closed the door in a hurry, and rested his back upon the wooden surface, as if he was afraid a monster would come out of it if he didn't make sure it would remain closed. He heaved a sigh.

"That was close..."

"Again," Remus nodded.

Sirius finally let go of the door, and they walked straight towards the dorms. James looked at the moon, shining bright above the grounds.

"That was a hell of a day..."

* * *

They were among the first at the cafeteria the next morning. They had barely slept the previous night, and yet none of the four boys was tired, they were too worried about the events of the previous evening to be tired.

"It just can't be the Slytherins," Remus went on as they sat down at a table, carrying their tea and bread. "Why would they run away by a window when they could have merely go back to the dorms without anyone noticing. Or they could have been hiding somewhere and waited for people to wake up and fled then."

"But then they were taking the risk to be injured," Peter protested.

"I don't see why the Slytherins would have targeted their own dorms," Sirius shook his head. "By doing so, they had two possibilities, either go back to the dorms and probably being killed like the rest of us, either flee but then they would have been the only survivors, and I don't imagine how they could have proved their innocence then. No, it doesn't make any sense."

"Padfoot is right. They're all evil, but they're not all stupid," James shook his head.

"It means that it's someone from outside the school then, 'cause the same argument stands as well for Muggle students," Remus went on.

"Probably, yes," Sirius nodded. "And I would bet that it's this Muggle group of psychopaths."

"The Free Minds?"

"Yes, that's them."

"Why not Death Eaters?" Peter asked him.

"There was no Dark Mark," Sirius replied. "And the Death Eaters always sign their crimes."

"Sirius is right," James nodded.

"Sirius? Right? Merlin, then it really is the end of the world!"

Marlene McKinnon appeared by their side.

"Can I sit here? It's all full," she asked, nodding towards the seat next to Sirius.

Sirius pulled the chair for her in answer, and she thanked him, smiling.

"What were you talking about?" she asked them, biting fiercely in her toast covered with a very thick layer of marmalade.

"You slaughtering this poor piece of bread," Sirius replied.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't refrain a small smile.

"You love teasing people, don't you?" she asked Sirius, taking care of biting just as fiercely in her toast.

"And you love putting too much marmalade on your toasts."

"Don't you know it can annoy people?"

"Don't you know it's still supposed to taste a bit like bread ant not only like sugar?"

"Don't you know it annoys _me?_ "

"Then why did you sit next to me?"

"Because there's nowhere else to sit."

They exchanged a small smile.

"You two are nuts," Peter mumbled.

"Not more than you, Wormtail," Sirius replied, still staring at Marlene.

"One day you'll have to explain me where your stupid nicknames come from," Marlene told the boys, chuckling and looking down at her cup of tea again.

"First they're not stupid. Second, you're not a Marauder, then you won't know."

She rolled her eyes, before waving to Lily and Alice to come and join her.

"It's crazy how full this place is!" Alice complained, sitting next to Marlene.

Which meant that Lily sat next to James, and that was a sign for him that he was about to have a wonderful day.

"Good morning, Evans!" he greeted her happily. "How do you feel? Still coughing?"

"I'm fine, Potter. Thank you," she replied quite coldly.

His grin flinched, but didn't disappear, and he opened his mouth to speak again, but her attention was torn away from him when Joey asked her if he and his friends could sit next to them.

"Of course you can," she answered with a wide smile on her face.

James hid his bitterness behind his cup of tea as Joey took the seat next to Lily.

"So... I guess we should thank you all guys for last night," Richard told the Wizards and Witches.

"It's nothing, really," Lily smiled in response.

"Do you have any idea of who could have done that?"

"Actually, we were talking about that before you all arrived," Remus nodded.

"It's the Free Minds Movement, no doubt to have," Sirius answered.

"Why not the Wizards?" Joey asked slowly.

"Because there was no Dark Mark," Marlene and Sirius answered in unison.

They exchanged a sad smile.

"Anyway, I have to admit that I didn't think that participating to this program with you guys would be so dangerous," Richard said, and though his tone was meant to be one of a joke, it sounded serious.

"And you haven't seen anything yet," Marlene mumbled under her breath.

But when she looked up again, there was a mischievous smile on her face.

"After all, you share your dorms with these four, don't you? You'd better be careful. They are the worst mischief makers you can imagine."

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know that?" he asked her. "That we share dorms?"

"Frank also shares this dorm with you," Alice answered.

"So... now you're sending your friend's boyfriend to spy on me? Watch out McKinnon, or soon you'll be addicted to me."

"What makes you think for a second that I'm thinking about you at all, Black?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but that was the precise moment the owls chose to bring them their letters and newspapers, coming in by the open windows. Must Muggles were scared of the birds, and a few shouts rang across the room.

Lily made room on the table before her so that her tawny owl could land. She picked up the letter and gave the animal some bread as a treat, and stroke affectionately the little owl's head. Joey looked cautiously at the animal.

"So... how does this work? For your letters?" he asked.

James caught up the Daily Prophet before it would fall into his plate, when Sirius was already unfolding his own copy.

"Well, you just have to tell the owl who you want to send the letter to," Lily answered.

Joey nodded.

"They're cleverer than you might think," he smiled.

He tentatively tried to stroke the animal, just like Lily had done seconds before, but...

"No, don't do..."

He shouted as the owl bit his finger, making him bleed.

"...that," Lily finished. "Sorry, she doesn't like strangers."

"She means that this bird doesn't like anyone but Lily," Marlene replied. "This thing still bites me as well."

Joey wrapped a towel around his bleeding finger.

"I'm sorry," Lily apologized again.

"It's nothing, don't worry," reassured her.

"Well, at least we're on the front page, look!" Peter said, showing his friends the Daily Prophet.

"What do they say?" Alice asked.

"They've arrested three men who have surrendered during the night. They're Muggles. Apparently they have already confessed everything, and claim to be part of the Free Minds Movement," Sirius answered, as he read the article. "I was right all along."

"So that's it then? They've been arrested..." Alice asked.

"No, it's only the beginning of trouble, you can be sure of that," Marlene replied.

Lily put her parents' letter in her bag, and turned to pet her owl again but when she looked up at the animal, it was happily cuddling against James's hand.

The ginger girl looked at the scene with wide eyes.

"She's not _that_ wild, is she?" he asked the girl.

Lily and James stared intensely at each other for a while.

"You just need to... be patient, right?" he went on.

"Yeah..." she breathed.

"Lily, hand me the butter," Alice called.

The ginger girl jumped, before giving her friend some butter.

She hoped to hide her reddening cheeks with her long hair, but James was not fooled, and he smiled at the sight of her blushing.

"So what do we have now?" Remus asked, looking for his timetable.

"Chemistry," Richard answered, standing up, along with his three friends. "And we shouldn't be late, the teacher is very strict about punctuality."

"I have no idea what this is," Marlene said.

"As long as they don't ask us to cut flowers again..." Sirius growled.

"How could it bother you?" Marlene replied. " _I_ 'm the one who did all the work yesterday, remember?"

"And we found out about your talents to cut things into pieces. Which is a bit scary I have to say."

"Why, are you afraid of me now? I thought Gryffindors were braver than that."

He smirked.

"I'm not afraid of you, McKinnon. I think _you're_ the one who's afraid of me."

"Really? How so? You're not scary at all, Black."

"I think you're scared of realizing how charming I am."

She laughed.

"I know for certain that you're not charming, Black. You're irritating, childish..."

"Handsome, smart..."

She laughed again.

"You know what I think we should do?" he asked her.

"I'm all ears."

"I think we should be paired together again."

Lily and James simultaneously chocked on their tea.

"What?!" they both exclaimed.

"That's an awful idea," Marlene answered, still staring at Sirius. "What makes you think for a second that I would accept this?"

"I have very good arguments," Sirius reassured her, fighting against a cocky smile.

"I'm all ears."

"Well, first to prove you that I deserve my place here in Gryffindor and that, although you look absolutely terrifying with a scalpel, I'm brave enough to spend another class next to you."

He could see the corners of her mouth starting to slowly curve up as she fought against a smile, but her laughing blue eyes were completely giving her away.

"Second point, it's also the occasion for me to prove you wrong and convince you that I'm charming."

She rolled her eyes, but the ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.

"And final point," he went on, and bent closer to Marlene and whispered in her ear, making sure that no one else than her could hear him, "it means that Lily and James will have to be paired together, which means that it will give them an occasion to know each other better. And you and I both know that despite Lily's stubbornness in rejecting him, they're made for each other."

He leaned in his chair again.

"So, what do you say?"

"Anyway, we will probably not have the chance to choose where we're going to sit," Marlene said slowly.

"But if we do?"

She didn't answer right then, and seemed to be thinking.

"Oh, come on McKinnon... are _you_ scared of _me_?" Sirius teased her. "Or perhaps you're scared to admit that I'm charming at the end of the day?"

He knew she had a rebel soul, and this little glint that always burnt in her eyes when she was defiant was there in her blue glance.

"You know what... Let's do it. If we can choose where we're gonna sit, I'll sit next to you."

"Wonderful!" Sirius exclaimed.

"We should go, and try to find where our class will be," Alice said, checking the time.

The girls left the cafeteria, leaving three aghast Marauders stare at Sirius.

"But... Pads..." James stuttered.

Sirius winked at him.

"Think for a second, Marlene and Lily would have been paired together," he said.

James slowly smiled.

"So Lily..."

"Ginger Devil's going to be alone, which means..."

"That I can be paired with her in this class."

"You see. I'm not insane."

"You are though," Remus replied.

Sirius laughed as they stood up.

"Don't worry," Sirius went on. "I know _exactly_ what I'm doing."


	6. When Marauders Play With Chemicals

**Here's a new chapter! Happens that I do have Wifi for now, so let's use it while I can.**

 **Thank you so much for your review GreTheresa. And just as promised, lots of Jily in here ;)**

 **I don't know when I'll post the next chapter exactly, it'll depend if I still have Wifi next week.**

 **Hope you like this chapter, and please, leave me a little review to tell me what you thought of it :)**

* * *

 **When Marauders Play With Chemicals**

"Oh Merlin..."

"What the hell happened in your head when you accepted to be paired with Black?!"

Marlene merely shrugged in response.

"He knows I have a rebel soul, I guess..."

"I hate you," Lily stated, heaving a sigh.

"You can still be paired with Potter..."

"In your wildest dreams."

"I'm afraid you won't have much choice though."

Lily moaned loudly at the sight of the hurrying students who were already choosing a seat in the lab. Soon there was no seat left except next to Sirius and James.

"Wonderful..." Lily growled, walking towards the empty stool next to James.

Of course, the first Muggle class where they were allowed to choose their seats themselves was the one Sirius and Marlene had made a bet on. Of course...

The boy welcomed her with a bright smile, silently thanking his best friend for his excellent idea.

She seemed grumpy, but he was determined to make a smile appear on her beautiful face.

"You alright, Evans?" he asked.

She heaved a sigh.

"No offence, Potter, but I would have preferred to be paired with Marlene rather than you."

"I wish I could say the same, but Sirius can be very annoying sometimes. And he seems to be in a particularly good mood today, which is the worst."

"So you prefer Grumpy Evans to Annoying Black?"

"Without any hesitation. Plus, you're better to look at if the class is boring than he is."

"I thought we had agreed on that kind of remarks, Potter."

"We agreed on the fact that I would not act as an arse and that I wouldn't ask you out. We never agreed on anything concerning compliments."

"Flatteries, you mean."

"Compliments, Evans."

While Lily rolled her eyes, their teacher was getting ready for class, and Sirius was working hard to annoy Marlene...

"Give me back my quill, Black!"

"I was just looking at it, McKinnon, relax..."

"I should never have agreed to this."

Sirius merely smirked in response, before inspecting the brown glass bottles that were displayed on the lab bench, along with some laboratory glassware.

"Do you know what KOH means?" he asked Marlene.

"No idea," she answered. "But I know that if you don't give me back my bottle of ink, I'll knock you out with this KOH bottle."

He smirked again.

"I think you'll need to ask for it more nicely."

"I think I'm going to punch you in the face."

"I know you like me more than you are willing to show."

"Oh, really?"

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have agreed to be paired with me again."

She couldn't help but smile.

"But you were supposed to prove me that you could be charming. And for now you're just annoying," she replied."For now, you're not proving me wrong at all, on the contrary."

A mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"All right, McKinnon. I'll be charming from now on."

He gave her back her bottle of black ink, and stopped stealing her things.

The teacher finally cleared her throat.

"Welcome first to our new students," she said to the Wizards and Witches. "I'm Mrs. Willows, and I will be teaching you both Physics and Chemistry this year. We'll start with a simple experiment I introduced last year to my students. We'll try to detect iron today."

She started to write an equation on the blackboard, that none of the Witches and Wizards were able to understand.

"You all have a bottle named 'unknown' on your bench. The purpose of this experiment is to detect the presence - or absence - of iron in the liquid. The method we're going to use can be used to dose species, but we'll talk about the mathematics later. As we have beginners with us, we'll start by simply trying to detect iron. I'm first going to show you what to do, and then I'll let you do it on your own. But first, you all need to go pick up a white coat, some glasses and gloves at the back of the class."

The students all walked to the closet and did as the teacher had instructed.

"Oh... and the girls will have to attach their hair."

Lily trapped her red hair in a ponytail, and James thought he was going to faint. She was so beautiful with a ponytail, then he could see all her freckles...

"All right, everyone listens and watches closely," the teacher said.

She showed her students how to turn on the agitation, and put the mysterious liquid in a beaker. Then she filled up a burette with another compound (Sirius forgot its name the second the teacher spoke it), and she slowly introduced it into the beaker. After a while, the crimson liquid became colourless.

"If it becomes colourless, it means that there is iron," Mrs. Willow commented. "Okay, now it's your turn."

Sirius looked at Marlene, who was also turning towards him.

"What are we supposed to put in that thing again?" Sirius asked, nodding towards the burette.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she answered, shrugging.

Sirius called for James, tapping on his shoulder.

"Prongs, what do we put in this?" he asked his friend as James turned around to face him.

But James merely shrugged.

"No idea."

He turned towards the redhead next to him.

"Evans?"

"The EDTA, I think," she answered, although her tone was hesitant.

"You're sure?"

She shook her head.

Sirius decided to turn towards Angel, who was sitting behind him. She was already filling up the burette.

"What did you put in there again?" Sirius asked her, pointing at the glassware.

"EDTA," she answered.

"Thanks," Sirius winked at her, and he didn't fail to notice that she was blushing.

He turned towards James again.

"Evans was right," he nodded.

He picked up the bottle, and reproduced perfectly the teacher's movements, while Marlene was taking care of the mysterious liquid.

"McKinnon?" he called, still filling up the burette.

"Hmm?"

"You look great today."

She snorted.

"Is that your way of being charming?" she asked, clearly not impressed.

"You don't like compliments?" he asked back.

"I don't like lines."

"That wasn't a line. Saying that your hair is so bright that it outshines the sun is a line."

She looked at him, wincing in disgust.

"Are there really some girls you manage to seduce with lines like that?"

"Many girls actually," he nodded.

"Well, that would _never_ work with me."

"I know. That's why I used a real compliment instead of a line."

"You know that being charming doesn't involve flirting?"

He winked at her.

"To me it does."

She struggled not to smile too much. She had to admit that he was funny at least...

"You're not charming for now, you know?" she told him.

He smiled.

"But I'm funny, and the smile plastered on your face is the final proof."

Her smile widened despite her best efforts to hide her amusement.

"Okay, I'll give you that. You're funny enough," she admitted.

The teacher walked next to them as Sirius was grinning, not paying much attention at the task at hand anymore.

"Be cautious with that," she warned the boy as he still held the EDTA in his hand. "It's dangerous."

"How dangerous ?" Sirius asked her.

"It can react with the iron in your blood. And in extreme cases, it could kill you."

Sirius and James looked at each other, smiling wickedly.

"Cool..." they breathed.

But Lily brought James back to reality.

"Potter, stay focused, would you?"

"I'm always focused, Evans," James replied.

"No, you're not."

Their liquid suddenly lost its colour.

"It worked!" James said, throwing his hands in the air in a ridiculous way, and he didn't fail to notice that Lily smiled (even if it was just for a second).

She started to clean up everything, but clearly James was starting to get bored with this class. Which meant that he was about to start talking to Sirius and get himself - and probably _her_ as well - into trouble, without a doubt...

And Lily couldn't let that happen.

"Potter, help me clean up everything," she requested.

"Do you think it changes something if you add some more?" he asked Lily.

"Mrs. Willows didn't say to put everything in..."

"Yes, but do you think it would change anything?"

"Potter, don't even think about it."

But before she could react, he had emptied the entire burette into the beaker. And Lily thought she was going to have a heart attack.

But nothing happened.

"See, it didn't blow up," he told her, an amused smile on his face.

He opened up a bottle they hadn't used, and stopped Lily when she tried to take it away from him.

"Potter, stop it now!"

"Look, it's purple."

"Potter!"

"Okay, okay..."

He put the bottle back on the bench, and closed it.

"Hey Prongs."

James turned towards Sirius again.

"Look at this," Sirius said, grinning.

He poured a compound in the beaker (in which he must have added other things already, as the liquid was now green and viscous) and some smoke escaped from the mixture he had created.

The two boys laughed, while Marlene was looking at Lily with a desperate expression.

"I should have listened to you," she admitted.

But suddenly the situation that made the two boys laugh so much got a bit out of hand...

"Oops..." Sirius breathed as a green foam was forming and climbed out of the beaker. He grabbed the glassware in a hurry, burning himself as the beaker was somehow extremely hot, and put it in the sink.

"You're okay?" Marlene asked the boy as he held his fingers and clenched his jaws with pain.

"I burnt myself," he said with a short nod. "It's nothing."

He saw the teacher walking towards them and he took out his wand. Before Marlene or Lily could protest, he and James had cleaned up Sirius's mess.

As she was reaching Sirius, the teacher looked suspiciously at the clean bench.

"You didn't empty everything in the sink, did you?" the teacher asked.

"No we didn't," Sirius shook his head.

"What did you do then, to clean up everything so quickly?"

Sirius showed the teacher his wand.

"I'm a bit lazy when it comes to cleaning," Sirius said.

The teacher gave him a suspicious look, but didn't punish him.

"Next time, use the Muggle way, like everyone here," she instructed.

"Yes, Professor."

She looked at James and Lily suspiciously as well, but walked to her desk anyway.

"Potter, if you do anything she hasn't told us to do, I swear by Merlin's beard I'll turn you into a toad. Is that clear?" Lily warned James, anger reddening her cheeks.

He nodded, biting his tongue.

She was always so beautiful when she was mad...

Behind them, Sirius and Marlene were chuckling nervously.

"You really are in a pain the arse, Black," Marlene said, chocking as she tried to laugh as silently as possible.

"I really did hurt myself, though," he said, holding his fingers again.

"Let me take a look."

He showed her his wounded hand. His fingertips had turned crimson red.

"It's not that bad," she reassured him.

She discretely took her wand, and in the blink of an eye, he was healed.

"Thanks," he smiled, touching his fingertips."You're good at this."

"I'd like to be a Healer."

"Really?"

"Why, you seem surprised," she smiled.

"I would have rather seen you kicking a few arses as an Auror."

She laughed.

"Well, you were wrong on that one."

"It's still kind of you to have helped."

"Well, I can't let you be hurt for now. You haven't avenged me yet."

He grinned.

"Don't worry, I've planned everything. I just need a few more things still."

"When are you planning to strike?"

"Before the end of the week, that's for sure."

She grinned.

"Well, you should hurry up. 'Cause I might choose to share this bottle of firewhiskey with someone else."

But he winked at her, a smirk on his face.

"I know you won't, McKinnon."

* * *

He loved the way she always tapped on the table with her fingertips when she was annoyed. He loved the way she tugged on her skirt when she was nervous before an exam. He loved how she wrapped her hair around her fingers when she was thinking. He loved how her cheeks reddened when she was angry. He loved how she bit down on her lip when she was focusing on something.

He loved the details that made her _Lily_.

He watched her from across the table as she bit her lower lip, twisting a lock of her red hair between her fingers while she read a charms book.

They were waiting for the Muggle Head Boy and Head Girl in the cafeteria. They hadn't talked much after the incident with Sirius that very morning, and James was starting to worry about it. He didn't want Lily to be mad at him, no matter how beautiful she was when she was angry.

"Evans?" he called.

"Hmmm..." she mumbled, not looking away from her book.

"About this morning..."

She looked up at him, now fully focused on the dark haired boy before her. And her green eyes were his doom, as they had always been...

"I'll talk to Sirius if you want," James offered. "Tell him to stop this little game of his with McKinnon. You could be paired with her then."

"Err..."

"I mean... It must be annoying to be paired with someone you hate."

Her eyes softened.

"I don't hate you, Potter. I just... don't know you well enough to trust you."

She smiled.

"But I do think that you're annoying," she added.

He smiled.

"You know... I never told you but..." James said slowly, his tone soft but serious nonetheless. "I'm sorry if I've ever made you sad. I'm sorry if I've ever hurt you. I never meant to. I just... I was just kind of a spoil child, I guess. And I wanted to impress you."

"What changed?" she asked, her voice as gentle as his.

He shrugged, clearly uncomfortable.

"I grew up, I guess."

She gave him a sad smile.

"I don't hate you Potter," she reassured him.

"Could you give me a second chance then?"

She shrugged, and he was certain that her cheeks had turned into a brighter shade of pink.

"Why not?" she said, brushing a lock of hair away from her face.

A grin slowly formed on his face.

"Do you want me to talk to Sirius then?" he asked. "It's okay if you do, you already have to see me for Head duties..."

She shook her head.

"As long as you promise not to blow up anything, it's okay," she said.

His grin doubled in size.

"Great," he said, trying to hide how happy he was. "'Cause he can be terribly annoying sometimes."

"Poor Marlene."

They laughed.

And among all these little things he loved about her, her laugh was the thing he loved the most, without a doubt.

The Muggles they had been waiting for finally arrived and joined them at their table.

"So..." Jersey said after having shaken hands with Lily and James and taken a seat next to Lily. "Let's get it over with."

"We should list the activities we need to include in our demonstrations," Ellie proposed. "In our school we have different clubs : rugby, football, tennis and chess."

"We have a club of chess as well," Lily said. "And one for Gobstones, and Quidditch."

"We could ask the chess players to organize a competition between the Muggle and Wizarding clubs," James proposed.

"Yeah, good idea," Ellie smiled.

"For the rest of the activities, we need to organize animations, demonstrations though. We're organizing the tryouts this Sunday for our Quidditch teams. So we'll be ready next week."

"Do you think we'll be able to sign in any club we want?" Ellie asked.

"You can't play Quidditch, I'm afraid," James answered. "But you can play Gobstones."

"Why can't we?" Jersey asked, his tone quite aggressive.

"You can't ride a broom," Lily answered.

"Yes, we fly," James nodded.

"But it doesn't matter really," Lily reassured the Muggles. "Most of us don't play Quidditch, you have to be skilled enough on a broom. That's why we have tryouts. But Quidditch is a big deal for Wizards, and Hogwarts is no exception. We are all involved, even if it's just as supporters."

"Do any of you play?"

"James is the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

A proud smile appeared on the boy's face.

"What about you?" he asked the two Muggles.

"I'm Captain of the rugby team," Jersey answered. "And Ellie plays tennis."

"We should organize demonstrations. Explain the rules and everything," James said.

"We could do that next week, if your tryouts are over by then," Ellie proposed."On Saturday and Sunday morning we can present the Muggle sports, and on Sunday afternoon you present your sport."

"And we can organize something for chess and Gobstones on Friday evening." Lily added.

"Sounds good to me," James nodded.

They kept on organizing the events of the coming week until the cafeteria was full of hungry students.

Lily spotted Marlene and Alice at a table and was about to join them when she saw James starting towards the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked him, clearly curious.

"I have to give McGonagall the note for the tryout so that she can put it in the Gryffindor Common Room," he answered.

"Do you want the girls and I to keep you a seat?"

He gave her a bright smile, but nodded towards the back of the cafeteria.

"The boys are here already, don't worry. But thank you, it's very kind of you."

They exchanged a smile, and James walked out of the cafeteria, heading for McGonagall's office, that was in fact her classroom. And even if it was their first week, he knew his way around enough now to go there without asking any help.

The door was not completely closed, as if it had only been pushed in a hurry. James could hear voices coming from inside the room.

"Are you sure, Alastor?"

"I'm afraid so, Albus."

"How could children have helped to do such a terrible thing?"

"We are living dark times, Minerva. Times in which children have to face choices only adults should have to deal with."

"Shh..." Moody suddenly said. "There's someone at the door."

The next second, James was magically pulled into the room, his arm still raised as he had been about to knock on the door.

"Mr. Potter?" McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"Err... Hi," James hesitantly said.

"Were you eavesdropping, Mr. Potter? " Moody asked him.

McGonagall was sitting behind her desk, while Moody was standing next to her. Dumbledore was standing next to the window. The three adults stared intensely at him, making the boy feel quite uncomfortable.

"No, sir, I..." James stuttered. "I just wanted to give Professor McGonagall a note for the Quidditch tryouts, so that she could put it in the Common Room."

He gave McGonagall the note as a proof.

"How much of the conversation have you heard?" Alastor asked again. "And I would tell the truth if I were you. Or else I'll have to ask less politely."

"I just heard about students being involved into something terrible that's all," James answered earnestly.

He hesitated, for a second about asking the question that was burning his tongue. But then, he had always been too curious to be wise.

"Is it about what happened last night?" he asked.

None of the adults answered, they merely exchanged a glance.

"I mean," James went on, "I read in the Prophet that three Muggles had surrendered themselves to the police. Does that mean that the information the Prophet gave away were false?"

Dumbledore shook his head.

"It means that this is a problem that is much more complex than what it might seem to be. We know for certain that these three men were helped by people from inside the school. Probably students."

"How can you know that?" James asked.

Moody looked cautiously at Dumbledore, but the elder Wizard nodded. He trusted James, and Dumbledore's trust was all Moody needed to trust someone himself.

"We went to their homes, and in the hearth of one of the houses, there were still pieces of letters, partially burnt. Some were plans of the school, some were notes giving the hours of curfews. It was enough to know for sure that they had been helped by someone from here," Moody answered.

The Auror rested a hand on James's shoulder.

"Boy, no one must know about this. Do you understand me?"

James nodded.

"Actually, I think you could help us, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said slowly.

"What can I do, Professor?" James asked the Headmaster.

"We need to discover who is working against us," he told his student."Maybe you and Ms. Evans could tell us if you noticed anything suspicious."

"I'm not sure it is a good idea to ask children..." McGonagall protested.

"Albus is right," Moody interrupted her. "No one but a student can know _everything_ happening inside this school. If Albus is sure that he can rely on this boy..."

"I'm sure," Dumbledore nodded. "I trust Mr. Potter to choose wisely who will help him and Ms. Evans in their task."

He walked to James, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"I do not expect from you to try anything to discover who might be against us. Just come see Professor McGonagall or myself if you notice anything suspicious. Do you understand, James? Do not put yourself in any dangerous situation. Can I count on you?"

"Of course you can, Professor," the boy nodded.

Dumbledore smiled.

"You should go eat your lunch now," he told his student.

James nodded and walked out of the room.

McGonagall quickly stood up after the boy had left, walking closer to Dumbledore.

"You shouldn't have asked that from him," she admonished, her tone severe.

"I thought you trusted him."

"I do. But he's just a boy."

"I'm afraid he will soon need to be more than a boy, Minerva."

McGonagall heaved a sigh.

"As if he and his friends needed this to get themselves in trouble..."

* * *

He had warned Sirius, Remus and Peter about what Dumbledore had confessed. But he hadn't had the opportunity to speak to Lily alone. When he had asked to see her alone, saying it was about their Head Duties (which was not completely a lie), she had told him to wait for her at the Library by 6 pm. But at 6.15 pm, he was still alone at his table, from which he could see the entrance of the library. There was no chance he could have missed her if she had walked into the room. Once again, he regretted not to be in Hogwarts, where he would have had the Marauder's Map to find her throughout the school.

The whole thing was making him uneasy. He expected to find enemies as well as friends in this Muggle school, but he wasn't expecting to find people ready to murder teenagers in the middle of a school. He guessed that the parents had learned the news during the morning. He was surprised not to have received anything from his parents yet, as they were usually over-protective towards him (and Sirius, now that he was part of the family).

Surely the next day, the hall would be filled with angry parents and drowned with letters full of worry. Perhaps it had already started, but for now is was only between the Headmasters and the parents.

He checked the time again: 6.30 pm.

There was something wrong. Lily was never late.

He stood up and headed for the cafeteria. But he only found Alice and Marlene there, and they had not seen Lily since half past five. She was in the grounds by then.

He went there but found nothing. He checked every dorm, but didn't find her there either.

When he came across Frank Longbottom, as he checked the Library again, James was completely panicked.

"You're alright, James?" Frank asked the boy.

"Have you seen Lily?"

"About an hour ago, yeah. She didn't seem very well. She was heading for the toilets near the grounds."

James was running toward the grounds before Frank could speak another word.

His heart was beating so fast. After the previous night and the conversation he had had with his teachers and the Auror...

Anything could have happened to her.

He checked his watch.

6.50 pm.

He stormed into the Ladies Room.

"Evans!" he shouted, his voice shaking with fear. "Evans!"

He tried every door, until he found one that was locked, the last one...

"Evans?"

He knocked on the door.

"Lily, are you in there?"

The sound of a loud sniff emanated from behind the door.

And then...

"Potter?"

James heaved a deep, relieved sigh. He took a step back, leaning against the sink behind him for balance.

"Fucking hell, Evans! Do you have any idea what time it is?!"

A new loud sniff.

"I'm sorry, Potter. I'm... I don't feel very well. I'm sorry."

Her voice was hoarse, shaking.

James finally realized that she had been crying. He slowly took a step towards the door behind which the girl was hiding. He looked under the door and realized that she was sitting on the ground, her knees close to her chest, her arms around her legs.

"Evans, are you okay?" he asked his voice now soft and hesitant.

No response.

"Lily?"

"I'm fine, I just want to be alone for a while," she said after a brief silence.

He could hear tears in her voice, although she tried to hide them.

"Don't you want to open the door?" James asked in a warm voice.

"No, I want to be alone."

"Would you prefer to speak to Alice or Marlene?"

"I just want to be alone, Potter."

He walked into the toilets next to hers, climbing so he could look on the other side of the wooden partition.

She was resting her head against the wood, her eyes closed, clearly trying not to cry.

"Hey, Evans."

She looked up at him, her eyes were red with her tears, her nose pink. She blushed fiercely.

"Potter..."

"Don't you think you've been her alone long enough? And it doesn't seem to do you any good."

"Potter..."

"If you don't open the door, I'll climb."

She laughed, drying her cheeks.

"I don't think you could climb in here," she replied.

"Oh... is that your way to invite me inside?" James asked, his voice full of humour. "All right then, here I come."

After a few tries, he managed to pass a leg on Lily's side of the partition and finally landed (not very gracefully) next to her.

She had been chuckling all the time.

"I hope you're impressed," James smiled, sitting next to her.

"Very," she smiled.

He thought for a moment about the best way to act now. He had never been particularly good at dealing with people in pain.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice very soft and warm.

A new tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly brushed it away, sniffing again.

"It's nothing, Potter."

"You've been here for an hour, crying. I don't reckon it's nothing."

"I'm sorry I missed our meeting at the Library."

"Don't be silly. Who cares?"

"You seemed pretty angry when you stormed in here."

He shook his head, looking down at his hand that rested on his knee.

"I wasn't angry, Evans. I was scared for you."

She frowned.

"You're never late at anything," he explained. "I thought something had happened to you. I was just... extremely worried."

"You mean hysterical."

He let out a laugh.

"Yeah, okay, hysterical. I guess I can't deny it."

He looked at her again, but she fled his hazel stare.

"Evans... I won't tell anyone."

She slowly looked up at him, her eyes full of tears, hesitating.

"I promise," he said. "I won't tell anyone. I'll be a tomb."

But she shook her head.

"I can't tell you," she said, her voice weak and shaky.

She seemed so fragile, so vulnerable with her big green eyes drowned in tears. He had never seen her this way. She was always strong, always determined, kind and gentle but fierce nonetheless.

Now she looked like a terrified child. And he found himself feeling such a rage towards whoever had made her feel so sad.

"You can tell me everything," he replied. "I'm here for you."

She stared at him for one more moment, before finally giving up.

"I've received a letter from my parents this morning, and I just read it tonight. It's... it's my sister."

He turned more towards her, listening closely. Her voice was barely more than a whisper. She found that she wasn't strong enough to hold his stare, and she looked down at the ground between them instead.

"She... she's a Muggle and... she hates me. Because I'm a witch."

Her voice broke, but she struggled to find it back and continued. Now that she had started to talk, she couldn't stop.

"She met this guy, Vernon, a few months ago and together they... they hate us."

She gestured towards both James and herself at the word 'us', and James had no problem understanding that she meant Wizards.

"My... my parents saw them in a protest before the Ministry a few days ago."

"The one organized by the Free Minds Movement?" James asked her.

She nodded, letting out a sob. James's eyes widened in horror.

"But... she's your sister," he protested. "She can't be part of the FFM."

Lily let out a wry laugh.

"Apparently she can though."

She sniffed, while James could only stare at her wide-eyed.

"I don't know if she's part of the FFM, but she was at the protest. She was there. She listens to them. And she and Vernon are now engaged, and... Petunia doesn't want me to come to her wedding. I'm not invited."

She let out a loud sob.

"It's over. It's hopeless now... she'll never want to speak to me again. I've lost her forever..."

She buried her face in her hands, and sobbed again, crying hard, unable to control herself anymore.

James took a few seconds to digest her confession, and looked at her.

What was he supposed to do to make her feel better?

He stroked softly her shoulder, afraid she would shrug him off. But she didn't.

"Hey, Evans..."

But she let out a very strong sob, and he wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders.

"Calm down, Evans..."

But she didn't, and he pulled her closer to him.

She let him press her against his chest, wrapping both his arms around her.

"It's all right," he reassured her, whispering in her hair.

He felt her grabbing his shirt, and holding on it for dear life. He struggled to forget about his rushing heart.

"It's okay. I'm here," he whispered again, and she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "It's all right. You'll see, things will be just fine."

He put a hand behind her head, his fingers sinking under her silky hair. He cradled her in his arms, holding her as if she was made of glass and he was scared of breaking her.

"I'm here, Evans. You're not alone. I'm here, it's okay, calm down now."

After a few minutes, she finally stopped sobbing, but remained in James's arms a bit longer.

Somehow, she felt safer in his arms.

"I'm sorry," she apologized once she had stopped crying. "I didn't mean to bother you with this."

"You're not bothering me, Evans," James reassured her. "And you have all the reasons to be upset right now, I reckon."

She sniffed loudly one more time.

"Just don't use my shirt as a tissue, would you? It's my favourite."

She laughed, sniffing again.

"That'd be disgusting," she nodded.

She wasn't shaking anymore, so James looked down at her, hoping she would not start crying again.

Because the sound of her crying was breaking his heart.

"Do you feel better?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Can you stay a bit longer?" she asked shyly, her voice barely audible.

He smiled.

"Of course. I'm not going to complain when I am to hug you like that."

She laughed again, wrapping her arms around his neck now, finally letting go of his shirt.

He rested his cheek on her head.

"Look... I'm not an expert in siblings' relationships," James said after a short silence. "But I reckon that your sister is a bitch."

Lily laughed one more time.

"But she's still my sister," she sighed. "We were close when we were little, before I found out I was a witch."

"But she changed, didn't she? And if she turned evil, then there's nothing you can do. And it's not your fault."

"I just... I think I just hoped that she would change back into the kind of person she was when she was little. But I guess she took a step too far by agreeing with the FFM. I don't think there's hope for her left."

"There is always hope, though," James said with a smile. "That's what my Mom keeps saying, at least."

"Do you think that you can forgive anything to your sibling?"

James shrugged.

"I think there's a line you must never cross. But... with siblings I reckon the line is very far away."

"You seem to be speaking about things you've experienced yourself."

"Sirius is like a brother to me. And he forgave me after I've done and said terrible things. And I forgave him after he had said and done terrible things as well. It just takes more time than usual sometimes."

She finally pulled away, drying her cheeks, before looking at James.

Her eyes were red with her cries, but her irises were greener than ever. James's stomach started to make crazy flip-flops...

"Thank you, you did help," she smiled.

"Anytime, Evans."

"What did you want to tell me? About Head Duties?"

But James shook his head. He reckoned she had enough problems already. The FFM was already too much in her life. It could wait, he and his three friends would take care of it for now. Maybe, he would tell her later.

"It's not important, Evans," he shook his head.

"It is though."

"No, no it's not. You've had enough things to worry about for today already. I'll do it myself."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

They exchanged a smile.

"Would you like to get out of here now? 'Cause this place is very uncomfortable."

Her smile widened, and she stood up, closely followed by James. He stretched, wincing.

"Come on old man," Lily laughed at him. "At least this time, you can use the door."

"Thank Merlin!"

She laughed as they walked out of the toilets and into the grounds. She turned towards him again as he straightened his lopsided glasses on his nose, his dark hair messier than ever.

Before he could realize what was happening, she was taking a step towards him and dropping a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you, James," she whispered.

And then she turned on her heels and headed towards the dorm.

James was frozen on the spot, too shocked to move a single muscle, and he remained there, motionless, still holding his glasses for Merlin only knows how long.

She had called him by his first name. And his pretty common name sounded rare and precious when she was the one speaking it.

She had kissed his cheek. He could still feel this tickling sensation of her sweet lips against his skin.

When he finally shook himself, a grin he couldn't make disappear was plastered on his face, but he didn't care.

He was on a little cloud all the rest of the evening.


	7. The Powers of Treats

**Here comes a new chapter! As the previous one was filled with Jily, I thought we needed a bit of Blackinnon to keep the balance. So looooots of Blackinnon here!**

 **Thank you so much Lara.X for your reviews, and thank you to you as well, dear Guest, whoever you may be :)**

 **And as my favourite character in HP is Sirius (as my pen name may suggest), it really means a lot that you tell me that you like my version of this character. So thank you Lara.X!**

 **I'll update again next week.**

 **Hope you like this new chapter, and please, tell me what you think about it!**

* * *

 **The Powers of Treats**

"Okay, everyone's ready? Wormtail, you know what to do?"

"I'll go upstairs, ready to free the owls."

"Moony?"

"I'll keep an eye on the teachers."

Sirius nodded.

"And James and I take care of the treats."

"How are you going to make the Slytherins get in the grounds though?" James asked his best friend.

But Sirius winked at him, a mischievous smile on his lips.

"I'm not worried about this. It won't be difficult."

They walked down the corridor, heading for the cafeteria.

"I'll warn Marlene to be around the grounds at lunch," Sirius told his friends.

"What is this game you're playing with her anyway?" Remus asked him suspiciously.

"A game? There's no game, Moony," Sirius answered. "I just want to win a drink."

"Really?"

"Really."

He opened the door of the cafeteria, and quickly spotted the Gryffindor girls already eating their breakfast. He went straight to Marlene.

"Hello there, beautiful blond," he smirked as he sat down next to her.

Marlene rolled her eyes and Sirius nodded to Alice and Lily.

"Hello there, you annoying arse," she replied.

"I hope you had wonderful dreams last night," he went on, his smile widening at Marlene's remark.

"You stayed out of them, so they were alright."

He smirked.

"That means that you've already dreamt of me."

"You only appear in my nightmares."

"I bet I'm the one who saves you."

"Never."

They exchanged a smile.

"What can I do for you, Black?" she asked, before sipping her tea.

He stole a toast from her plate, and he started to put jam on it.

"If I were you and I was in the mood for a bit of revenge and a good laugh, I would hang around the grounds at lunchtime."

She narrowed her eyes.

"So, are you going to strike today?"

He winked at her.

"I might..."

"That means 'yes', clearly."

"Prepare that bottle of firewhiskey."

"We'll see about that."

He stood up, and handed her the toast.

"And _this_ is a toast. You see the difference with yours? There's not too much jam."

She took it, and took a little bite, before faking a wince.

"Disgusting, Black."

They exchanged another smile before Sirius would walk away, joining his friends in the back of the cafeteria.

Lily and Alice looked at Marlene with disapprobative glances.

"What?" Marlene asked, her mouth full with bread.

"This is not going to end well, for neither of you. I don't like this flirty game you're playing at," Alice warned her.

"There will never be anything going on between me and Black," the blond girl reassured her friend.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Lily replied, nodding towards the bread Marlene was biting in fiercely. "You're eating his toast."

Marlene froze, and immediately put down the piece of bread he had given her.

There was nothing wrong with her, nothing wrong at all...

* * *

The treats were in position, hidden in the bags and the pockets of the Slytherins. All Sirius had to do was to take the Slytherins in the grounds.

A piece of cake...

"Hey, Mulciber," he called, as he spotted the boy in the corridor, walking out of a classroom.

The Slytherins all turned towards Sirius.

"I think I can do something for you," Sirius went on.

The large and strong boy crossed his arms before him.

"And what could that be, Black?" he asked.

"I cold straighten that nose of yours. Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror?"

Mulciber took a deep breath, but it was clearly not enough to piss him off.

"I wonder how you managed to twist it so much," Sirius went on. "Or perhaps it's just naturally like that. In that case, I hope you didn't inherit that feature of yours from your mother. The poor woman, she must look like a rhinoceros."

Mulciber's eyes narrowed, and anger twisted his face. But Lestrange held him back, preventing the boy to walk to Sirius.

In response, the Gryffindor boy casually leaned against the wall, putting his hands in his pockets, and a little smile appeared on his face.

"What is it Mulci, losing your temper?" Sirius said in a mocking voice. "As if I was afraid really. Anyway, I know you're too much of a coward to try anything against me. And I guess you'd be wise to stay there with your little friends. We both know I'm a better duelist than you are."

Mulciber freed himself from Lestrange's grasp, and started to walk towards Sirius, his face crimson with anger now. He took his wand.

"I'll teach you to hold your tongue," he roared throughout the corridor.

"Me?" Sirius asked innocently, walking backwards towards the grounds.

"Why are you looking for trouble anyway, Black?" Avery asked, the boy taking out his wand as well.

"I'm not looking for trouble, I wanted to help this poor boy. I mean, take a look at his face. How could any girl ever want to kiss someone with such an ugly nose. I was just trying to help there."

Sirius walked into the grounds, walking under the burnt tree, and after only a few seconds, all the Slytherins were out of the corridor as well.

It was the moment...

"Now, Wormtail!" James shouted across the corridor to his friend, who immediately opened the door he was standing in front of.

Or at least he tried to...

James's eyes remained fixed upon the Slytherins and Sirius, down there, three floors under him. And there were sparks now escaping from the Slytherin's wands...

"Wormtail, Padfoot is starting to be in a difficult situation down there," James called for Peter to hurry.

"I'm doing my best," Peter mumbled, finally managing to open the heavy wooden door.

He sent a few sparks inside the room, and soon, dozens of owls were flying out, and escaped towards the grounds, leaving a trail of feathers behind them.

"What the HELL!?" Lily squealed at the sight of the birds heading towards the Slytherins.

"Oh Merlin..." Marlene breathed, her eyes wide.

"Bye Mulci!" Sirius shouted, before running away towards the closest door to escape the army of owls that was diving towards the grounds.

And guess where he landed?

Right in Marlene's arms.

"Hey, McKinnon!" he grinned as he stumbled against her, trying to slow down.

"Is that your brilliant joke?" Marlene asked, clearly not convinced. "Freeing owls?"

"No, _this_ is my brilliant joke," he winked at her, pointing at the Slytherins.

And the owls started to head straight towards the students, and soon the Slytherins were covered with hungry birds. They were shouting, and waving their hands in the air, but none of the animals seemed willing to harm them.

They seemed attracted by their pockets and bags.

The students started to run across the grounds, and the owls followed them.

All around them, laughs were echoing throughout the school. And Marlene was holding her stomach at the sight of the panicked students running frantically in all directions, chasing owls away.

Sirius looked at the girl next to him.

"So? Satisfied, McKinnon?" Sirius asked the girl as he dried his cheeks, laughing so hard he was crying.

She nodded, laughing too hard to answer with words.

"You're brilliant," she hiccupped between two waves of laughter.

"So? Have I earned this drink?" he asked, and there was flirt back in his voice.

"I think you do deserve a drink," Marlene nodded calming down at the sound of his tone.

"Wonderful!" Sirius cried.

McGonagall finally stormed into the grounds, and chased the birds away, sending them back to their tower.

And as Lily was looking at the owls flying up towards the sky, James suddenly appeared next to her out of nowhere, along with Peter and Remus.

But where were they coming from?

"Potter," she breathed, glaring at him. "Was that you?"

"Was that me where?" James asked back at her.

"Was it you and your friends who planned all this?"

"Oh, come on, Evans! Even you were laughing!"

"Then it _is_ you! You're supposed to be responsible, remember? You're Head Boy, for Merlin's sake!"

"Evans, relax!"

"That was childish and stupid and..."

"Funny?"

She heaved a frustrated sigh, pulling on her hair.

"You..."

"I hope for you all that you have nothing to do with this!"

McGonagall was striding towards them.

And she seemed extremely angry...

"You four!" she roared, pointing at the four Gryffindor boys. "If it is one of your stupid pranks again, I will personally write to your parents. This time I will!"

An expression of panic appeared on the boys' faces.

And Lily was feeling sad for them. Because after all, it was just a joke. She turned towards the Slytherins. Bellatrix was hysterical, the boys were furious, but they seemed unhurt.

"Professor, it wasn't us," Sirius tried to defend himself and his friends.

"Everyone can testify, Sirius was on the grounds as well as the Slytherins when the owls arrived," Marlene said.

"And you three?" the teacher asked Peter, Remus and James.

"We..." James started, his brain working so quickly he was surprised no smoke would come out of his ears, searching for an excuse.

"They were with us, Professor," Lily lied.

McGonagall looked intensely at her student.

"Are you sure, Miss Evans?"

"Yes, Professor. The boys were with us."

McGonagall nodded slowly.

"Well, I guess you will have to thank Miss Evans for giving you an alibi, young men," the teacher said. "But the next time you misbehave, your parents will be warned."

The four boys nodded, and McGonagall walked away, heading towards the Slytherins.

Remus heaved a relieved sigh.

"This one was close," Peter breathed.

Lily turned around, glowering at James.

"I owed you one, for the other day," she breathed, her cheeks red with fury. "But the next time, don't count on me to save your arse, Potter. Understood?"

"Crystal clear, Evans," James breathed.

His heart was about to explode, she was so beautiful when she was mad...

She started to walk away, closely followed by Alice.

"Hey, Evans," James called after her.

She spun around, looking at him again.

"Thank you."

"Next time, plan your alibi as well, Potter."

And she turned around again, and disappeared into another corridor.

But James was smiling.

"What makes you so happy?" Peter asked. "She's mad at you."

But James shook his head.

"She lied for me."

He patted his friend's shoulder.

"She likes me, Wormtail!"

"I wouldn't be so optimistic if I were you," Remus warned him.

"Oh, Moony, always the kill joy!"

And James and Peter started to walk down the corridor, laughing. Behind him, Remus could hear Sirius and Marlene talking about when he would have this drink she had promised, but she brushed his insistent remarks away, and hurried after her friends in an adjacent corridor. So Sirius shrugged and walked towards James and Peter, throwing a questioning look at Remus, and the smile he threw at his friend was inviting him to follow their lead. There was mischief painted all over his face.

Remus rolled his eyes.

What an adorable bunch of morons...

* * *

It was the end of their DADA class. the end of their day. Sirius was tired, he had barely slept the previous night, busy at stealing owl treats for his prank. He yawned loudly, not bothering himself with covering his mouth.

"That's rude to yawn like that, you know?"

A smile appeared on his face, and he waited for Marlene to join him, oblivious of his friends around him.

"What else do you want? Don't you think you put me into enough troubles already?" he asked, a teasing glint alit in his eyes.

"I thought you would want to have this glass of firewhiskey you craved so much for."

Sirius grinned.

"How could I say no to that?"

He warned James that he would join him and their friends for dinner, and he followed the blond girl to the dorms to get the bottle of firewhiskey she was hiding in her truck, and they hid in a deserted corridor, sitting on the ground under a large window.

They could hear the wind blowing and shattering against the windowpane, and it was the only sound they could hear in the corridor.

Sirius summoned two glasses, and handed them to Marlene for her to fill them up with alcohol.

"Well, I guess I should understand that you appreciated my wonderful prank," Sirius smirked.

"It was funny," Marlene admitted.

They hit their glasses together, before drinking it all in one, long gulp that burnt their throats.

"That's good firewhiskey," Sirius nodded, his voice made a bit hoarse by his burning throat.

"I know," Marlene nodded, her voice a bit hoarse as well.

She poured them another glass of liquor.

"Have I also managed to convince you that I'm charming?" he asked with a cocky smile.

"Not so sure of that yet," she replied.

But he could see there was something wrong with her. Sure, she replied at his flirty lines, but she seemed to be worried. She didn't smile at him as much as she would usually do.

"Is there anything wrong?" he asked her.

She raised an eyebrow.

"I thought we were supposed to drink, not talk", Marlene replied.

"People usually talk while drinking," Sirius argued.

She turned her drink between her fingers.

"Why were you so scared when McGonagall talked about writing to your family?" she asked slowly. "Do you think they would write to your parents?"

Sirius froze, his glass raised just half way to his lips.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that," Marlene mumbled under her breath,

"You like asking delicate questions, don't you?" he joked.

But his tone wasn't merry all of a sudden.

"I shouldn't have asked that, I'm sorry," Marlene repeated.

There was a moment of silence, and Sirius put down his glass.

"To answer your question," he said softly, "they would send words to the Potters, not to my parents. Which is why I was scared. I don't give a damn about my parents, and they don't give a damn about me."

"Didn't they... try to stop you from leaving? Your parents I mean."

Sirius looked down at his glass, before drinking it straight.

"I don't think we're close enough to talk about that, McKinnon," he replied.

She looked down at the ground.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so curious."

He shook his head.

"It's okay."

There was a new silence as Marlene filled up their glasses again.

"Tell me," Sirius said slowly. "Do these questions about my family mean that you want to talk about _your_ family."

She shifted.

"Not really," she answered. "It's just that... of all people I know here, you're the only one who has a family life as shitty as mine. So... I don't see who else I could talk with about that."

"So you _do_ want to talk about your family."

She drunk up again.

"It's been two months today since..."

Her voice broke.

He carefully looked at her, but she was fleeing his intense stare.

"I miss them today," she breathed.

It was his turn to pour the brown liquid in their glasses.

"I don't reckon that listening to someone else's suffering is going to help you, though," he said.

"That's not what I wanted us to do," she reassured him. "I... I just don't want to be alone today. And Alice and Lily are giving me these eyes full of pity, and... and I knew you wouldn't."

She wrapped her arms around her knees, and looked shyly at him.

"You can leave if you want. I know you didn't come here to talk about depressing things."

Sirius heaved a sigh.

"There's nothing better than firewhiskey to talk about depressing things though."

She smiled.

"It wouldn't be fair if I was the only one confessing tings though, don't you think?" she said.

He nodded, a little smile on his face.

"I guess you're right on that one."

"How did you do to run to the Potters?" she asked him, resting her cheek on her arms.

Sirius shrugged.

"I grabbed my trunk and ran away."

"But your parents didn't look for you?"

Sirius clenched his jaw.

"My father didn't want to let me pass the door. I arrived at the Potters... in a quite bad shape. My father did come after me at the Potters. But James's parents defended me. They... they threatened my father to call the Aurors if he insisted."

"What do you mean? Why would they called the Aurors?"

Sirius struggled to swallow.

"My parents are not known to be particularly tender people," he breathed.

"Do you mean...?"

"Let's just say that I know what an Unforgivable Curse feels like."

Her eyes widened.

"I didn't know..." she whispered.

"No one knows. Because no one cares..."

"Did you ever try to talk to the Aurors about all this after you ran away?"

He rolled his eyes.

"The Black family is one of the most ancient and powerful of the Wizarding families. They will just... bury the case. And anyway, my brother would deny everything I would say and it wouldn't bring any good to anyone in the end. I'd rather... try to forget about that."

He cleared his throat, picking up the bottle of firewhiskey and drinking directly the alcohol. He took one, two, three long gulps.

"See, not the same kind of... fucked up family, but still fucked family."

He drank up more firewhiskey.

"McKinnon, don't tell that to anyone," he breathed.

"You have my word."

She took the bottle from him, and drank up. And she reckoned that it was enough sad confessions for one day.

"One more question," she said, before handing him the bottle again.

"Anything you want, beautiful one," Sirius said, clearly tipsy by now.

"Would you like us to be friends?"

He raised an eyebrow, and he looked at the blond girl next him. Her cheeks were reddened by alcohol, and for sure he wasn't the only tipsy anymore.

"So... we're not friends?" Sirius asked, a smirk back on his face. "I'm upset, McKinnon. I thought you liked me more than that."

She laughed.

"We're not friends. For now you're just an annoying classmate."

"And why would you like this situation to suddenly change?"

She stared at him, and she was serious again all of a sudden.

"Because I don't think you're a stupid clown anymore."

He gave her a small smile.

"Well, I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not. It means that you thought for years that I was a jerk."

She laughed.

"I didn't say jerk."

"But you meant it."

"A bit."

"See, it wasn't a compliment at all."

They exchanged a smile.

"But I don't think you are anymore," Marlene said.

"What made you change your mind? The sad story behind the jerk?"

She shrugged.

"It helped," she admitted. "That and the fact that you did avenge me today. Thank you by the way."

"Oh, it is always a pleasure to mess up with the Slytherins."

"And you're funnier than I thought you were, once one learns to ignore the constant flirt."

"You love it when I'm flirty with you, and I know it."

"You overestimate your charm, Black."

"But I keep calling you McKinnon."

"Why, you like my name so much?"

"See, who's flirting now?"

She chuckled.

"Okay, you can keep on calling by my family name, but I'm calling Sirius from now on."

"Deal."

"And there's a rule we need to establish."

"I hate rules. I always want to break them."

"We don't sleep together. Which means that you can stop trying to get into my knickers."

"See, I hate rules. They're never fun."

She drank up again, a defying glint into her blue eyes.

"I was never going to accept to sleep with you anyway, Black."

"Where is our deal on you calling me Sirius?"

"Did you hear what I said?"

"You would have given in sooner or later."

"I don't think so."

"I could have tried to persuade you."

"Sirius..."

She leaned towards him, and he imitated her, their faces only inches away.

"You're not my type," she replied.

And she stole the bottle of firewhiskey from the boy before pulling away, making Sirius almost fall forwards.

She laughed at him, drinking one more gulp.

"You're... so cruel, McKinnon," he laughed.

His head was spinning a little bit now, and when he tried to take back the bottle from the girl, he almost fell again.

"You want that firewhiskey?" she asked, teasing him, keeping the bottle out of his reach. "I bet that's your treat. Your final weakness. Like owl treats for these birds you used this morning."

He pushed her, struggling to catch the bottle, and they both fell down to the ground, laughing.

"So, do you agree on the terms of our friendship?"

He looked down at her. He was lying above her, and although he made sure their bodies were not touching, they had never been so close...

"Friends and no sex," she went on.

"I could break that right now..." he proposed, hovering above her, his lips only millimeters from hers.

"But if you want to have a chance to have children one day, you won't try it."

He smirked, but nodded nonetheless.

"All right. Friends and no sex, then."

They grinned at each other.

"Could you get off me? You're heavy, you know?"

"I'm not even touching you."

" Maybe you should try a diet."

"I'm all muscles, McKinnon. I don't need a diet."

"But your ego could use one."

They laughed, alcohol preventing them from stopping, and Marlene used his laugh as a distraction to make him roll off of her. She looked at the bottle of alcohol.

"It's almost empty," she pointed out.

"And you're drunk," he replied, laying on his back next to her. "'Can't hold your liquor, McKinnon."

"As you're drunk as well, I guess it... means that you can't... hold your liquor either."

"I don't stutter at least."

They were both lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, and they remained silent for a while.

"My Dad used to make us hot chocolate when we were sick," Marlene breathed. "He thought chocolate could heal anything."

"He would have loved Remus then, he thinks the same."

She cuddled against his arm.

"Something tells me that I would have needed one of his hot chocolate tomorrow morning."

When he looked at her again, she was already asleep.

"Marlene! Wake up!"

The girl groaned, burying her head under her pillow.

"Lily, let me sleep! It's Saturday!"

"Wake up! Someone left something for you."

"What?"

She sat up, nausea rising in her body, her head spinning. She growled, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"If you hadn't drunk with Black, you wouldn't feel miserable like that."

"Shut up."

Alice handed her friend a white box.

"It was on our doorstep, with your name on it," she told Marlene. "Have you hidden some secret admirer from us?"

Marlene rolled her eyes and took the box from her friend. There was a little note with it.

 _For hangover, I would advice some Wizarding remedy available at the infirmary, but I can't provide you with_ everything _, can I now?_

She smiled, recognizing Sirius's handwriting. She opened the box.

The entire room was instantly filled with the scent of hot chocolate.

And when she looked into the box, breathing in the warm and sweet scent, she discovered a huge cup of her favourite drink.

She felt tears appear in her eyes.

"Who is it from?" Lily asked, frowning at the sight of the warm beverage.

Marlene smiled, taking a sip of the comforting liquid.

It was perfect.

"Marls?" Alice called her friend. "Who is it from?"

The girl didn't even notice that a smile had formed on her face.

"Sirius."


	8. Quaffles and Brothers

**I've finally finished the chapter! Sorry I'm a bit late, but I struggled with this one. I actually had to erase everything and start all over again, changing the plot because I just couldn't get through what I had planed at first. And I was right to do so, 'cause I wrote all this in just one night ;)**

 **Thank you so much GreTheresa for your reviews, you really are the best, you know that?**

 **I'll update again next week.**

 **And one more thing before I leave you to your reading. I am now also on Tumblr! For short stories, drabbles, imagines, and a few other things, and I do take requests. So if you're interested, you can check out my new blog! I write under the same name than here (padfootagain for both the blog and my profile).**

 **Hope you like this chapter. Please, tell me what you think about it :)**

* * *

 **Quaffles and Brothers**

"It feels so good to be home!"

James and Sirius exchanged a smile.

"You're right, Pads," James nodded, walking towards the Quidditch Pitch. "It does feel like coming home."

The morning was chilly, but none of the boys seemed to care as they walked through the grass of this school that they loved so much. They still felt out of place at Saint Peter, but here, at Hogwarts, they felt like they belonged. No one judged them, or threw glares at them.

It was the only place where they could be fully themselves and be loved for it.

"So, where do we start, Cap?" Caradoc Dearborn asked James.

"Chaser first," he answered, nodding at Marlene, and the girl nodded. "Then Beater, and we'll finish with the Seeker.

"I hope it won't be too long," Marlene said. "I need to work on my Charms with Lily after the tryouts."

James nodded slowly.

"How is she, by the way?"

"Fine, why?"

"Nothing, just curious."

Sirius narrowed his eyes at his best friend. Surely there was something he had been hiding. But now was not the time to question his friend about Ginger Devil.

Now was the time to find new recruits for their Quidditch team.

Indeed around twenty students had already gathered on the Pitch, waiting for the team to arrive, all of them hoping for a place in the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

They found the Chaser in less than twenty minutes (only one was not absolutely awful after all), a fourth year blond guy who was called Philipp. Sirius took his time torturing a bit the students who wanted to try for Beater, but finally chose a sixth year boy with curly brown hair, named Michael. And finally it was the turn of the Seekers, and they chose a fifth year blond girl names Maggie to complete the team.

They had needed almost two hours to finish the tryouts, and all of them were knackered by the end of the session.

"We'll have lots of work to do with the new ones this year," Marlene sighed, thinking about the Chaser they had chosen for the team as they walked towards the changing rooms.

"Hell, yes..." Sirius moaned, throwing his head backwards, staring at the ceiling of the corridor.

"You should look at where you're going or you'll hit the wall," Marlene mocked him.

Sirius merely looked at her in response, raising an eyebrow, a playful smile on his lips.

"And here, McKinnon is worried about me. I was waiting for the moment to arrive."

"I'm not worried about you, Sirius."

"You are though, you're scared I could hurt myself by hitting a wall."

"I'm not worried about you."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"Admit it, you are."

"I'm not."

"Why don't you stop lying?"

"I'm not lying."

"You're worried about me."

"Shut up, would you?"

James and Caradoc exchanged a desperate glance.

"What's happening with these two anyway?" Caradoc asked the Quidditch Captain.

"Apparently they became friends," James whispered in response. "But since then, they've kept on teasing each other and bickering like that."

"Hope it doesn't have any influence on the team."

"You know Sirius, he knows what he's doing here."

"I know Sirius, and I'm sure he has no idea about what he's doing here."

They finally reached the changing rooms, and they walked in there one by one. Sirius was the last to enter, still joking with Marlene, until a glitter of green caught his eyes...

When he turned towards the end of the corridor, his little brother was standing there, perfectly still, staring at him with grey eyes that looked just like his own. Sirius stared back at him for a moment, before nodding. His brother didn't reciprocate the gesture though, and Sirius turned towards Marlene again.

"Sorry, I've got to deal with that," he said, serious all of sudden, worried even.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she offered, but he shook his head.

"It's just my brother. Don't worry, I can handle it."

She nodded, and disappeared in the changing room. Sirius took a deep breath, before walking towards his younger brother.

It was like looking at himself in a mirror, unless a slightly younger image appeared instead of his current shape. Same grey eyes, same form of face, same jet black hair...

But Sirius used to wear a gold and red tie when a silver and green one was tied around his brother's neck... And that was the major difference between the two siblings.

"Hi, Reg," Sirius said softly, as if he was afraid the boy before him would get scared and run away. "How are you?"

Regulus shrugged.

"Fine. You ?"

"I'm okay."

Silence.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked.

"Tryouts."

"You want to enter the Slytherin team?"

Regulus nodded.

"You'll have to play against me then..." Sirius smiled.

"And I'm too old for you to let me win now. So I guess I'll have to give you a real fight," Regulus replied, smiling as well.

Sirius let out a little laugh, nodding.

"Yeah, you're right."

Another silence. Grey eyes staring at grey eyes. Sadness hidden at the corners of their smiles.

"It's good to see you," Regulus confessed.

"It's good to see you too, Reg."

"So... how is it at this Muggle School? Heard that you almost died on the very first day."

"Nah, it wasn't that terrible," Sirius reassured him. "Everything came back to normal. And the classes are even more boring than here. And it's hard to be more boring than History of Magic, but some Muggle teachers can do this miracle. I'll give them that."

They both chuckled.

Silence again.

Sirius cleared his throat, looking for the right words, afraid to scare the boy away.

"You... You're not in trouble, are you?" he asked softly.

But his brother didn't answer, setting his grey gaze on his shoes instead of his brother's eyes.

"Reg?"

But still no answer.

"Reg... you know I'm here for you, right?"

The Slytherin boy nodded slowly, but kept his eyes fixed on his shoes.

"Reg, look at me."

But the boy took a step back.

"I've got to go," he breathed. "Need to get ready for the tryouts."

"No, Reg, wait."

"I need to go, Sirius."

"Reg, wait!"

The Gryffindor caught the Slytherin before he could run away, grabbing his arm.

But although his old was firm, it was soft as well. The opposite of their parents' grips.

Sirius forced his brother to face him, and they intensely stared at each other again.

"You know you can count on me, right?" Sirius told the boy. "If you're in trouble, you just have to tell me, and I'll get you out of it."

"You're not at Hogwarts anymore, Sirius," Regulus breathed. "How could you protect me from them?"

"I'll find a way to come back to Hogwarts."

"You can't do miracles."

"I can though."

Regulus gave him a sad smile.

"I'm afraid it's time for me to take care of myself, Sirius."

Sirius shook softly his head.

"That's not how it works between brothers. They don't leave each other."

"You did leave though."

Sirius heaved a bitter sigh, before clenching his jaw.

"You know it was our parents I was fleeing, not you. You know it was this mess we lived in, not you."

"Doesn't make any difference for me now though."

"You could run away as well."

"And where would I go?"

"I could ask James's parents to take you in too. I'm sure they'd say yes without a single hesitation."

But Regulus shook his head.

"I'm not like you, Sirius," he said.

"But I know you're not like them either."

"Sirius... You've always been there for me. I know you have. But I have to try to survive by myself now. Because you won't always be there protecting me, and I'm not blaming you or anything... But it's clear that our lives are not heading in the same direction. I have to learn to live without you protecting me all the time. And you being away from Hogwarts is the perfect occasion. You understand?"

Sirius nodded slowly, releasing his brother. But his stare didn't falter.

"Don't become one of them," he breathed, and his voice was begging, a most unusual tone on the reckless and funny Sirius Black. "Not you. Not after all we've been through. I know you don't believe in what they fight for. So don't do the wrong choices just because you're scared of them. Because one day, you'll find out that you can't face them on your own, and you'll be right. But that's when I'll be here for you. You understand?"

Regulus nodded. But there was a strange glint in his eyes, like he was lying to his brother.

"I need to go, Sirius."

"Take care of yourself."

"You too, Sirius."

The Slytherin disappeared around the corner, and Sirius slowly turned around.

James was standing still, a few meters away.

"I didn't eavesdrop," James reassured his friend.

"Thank you," Sirius breathed.

"I think we need to talk about that."

Sirius nodded.

"Yes, but not here. Let's find Remus first."

James nodded, before walking back into the changing room to hurry the rest of the team.

They needed to get back to Saint Peter, and they needed to do it quickly, before darkness would creep up too close to Sirius's heart.

* * *

Regulus took a deep breath, before joining the other Slytherins on the Pitch. He waited with the other students for the Quidditch team to arrive, feeling sick as his nerves betrayed him. When Avery spotted him in the crowd, he walked closer to him, and he spoke softly to him, so that only Regulus could hear.

"Which post do you plan on trying for?" he asked the younger boy.

"Seeker."

Avery shook his head.

"What position does your brother play again in Gryffindor?"

Regulus clenched his jaw.

"Beater."

Avery nodded.

"Then you'll try for Beater. Get ready."

Regulus nodded, and went to sit on a bench with the other boys who had come to try for Beater.

It wasn't like he had much of a choice anyway...

* * *

They had rushed through Hogwarts, and hurried in the chimney to use the Floo Network back to the Muggle School, and now James was helping Sirius to climb up the stairs to the dorms. All the while, Marlene had stared at the boy with worried eyes.

Something was terribly wrong with Sirius. He wasn't his usual annoying arse. He hadn't spoken a single word since he had seen his brother. He was walking like a zombie, his eyes drifting from right to left, but never really seeing anything. He seemed lost in thoughts.

And that was exactly what he was actually, lost in thoughts. He was thinking about all these things his brother and him had shared. Terrible things for most...

When they were little, it was Sirius who was always punished. Regulus never suffered from any mistreatment until Sirius left for Hogwarts. Because everytime, Sirius placed the blame upon himself, and himself only, lying if necessary. And so he was the one who was beaten and cursed, sometimes until he would black out. He had probably had more than once the share his parents wanted to inflect on his brother as well, but he didn't care. He was ready to suffer to protect his little brother.

When Regulus had come to Hogwarts, Sirius had protected him more than once against the Slytherins, sometimes against Gryffindors as well. Once, a Slytherin had broken both Sirius's wrists, sending a Bludger at him in the middle of the grounds, because Sirius had protected his brother from him. But Sirius had healed, and the Slytherin had lived hell for the rest of the year from the Marauders. And after a while, no one was teasing Regulus anymore, they were too afraid of Sirius for that.

But one day he had reached a breaking point. A point he couldn't overcome. Too much shouting from his mother, too much beating from his father, too much hatred thrown at him by the two of them... And one night he couldn't take any more of this and had run away. And when he had stormed into his brother's room with his trunk, about to leave this prison he was imprisoned in, asking his brother to run away with him, to go with him to the Potters... Regulus had refused. He had remained behind in this house that meant only hatred and suffering. He was too afraid to follow his older brother, and Sirius knew it. But for his own sake, Sirius couldn't stay there anymore. At this point, if he wanted to remain sane, he _had_ to get out of that house. And he did.

And now that he had changed school, he couldn't even protect his brother at Hogwarts...

James helped him up the staircase of the dorms and guided him to the right door. But he stopped Marlene when she tried to enter with them.

"James..."

"Marlene, let us take care of him now, okay?"

"But..."

"There's no 'but'. We know how to deal with him when he's like that. Don't worry, he'll be just fine."

Lily walked out of her dorm right at this moment, and she looked at Sirius with wide eyes when she saw the tortured expression on his face.

"What happened to him? Is he ill?" she asked gently, walking closer to the Gryffindors.

"No, he's just shaken," James reassured her.

"Potter, about the tryouts..."

"Can we talk about that later? I'll see you after diner, okay? But now I have to take care of him."

Sirius shifted next to him, resting his hand on the doorknob.

"Evans?" James asked again.

"Of course, Potter, take care of him".

James nodded, and helped his friend inside the room.

Remus and Frank were playing chess, sitting on Remus's bed. The Muggle boys were there as well, playing with cards.

The second Remus laid his eyes on his two best friends, he jumped down his bed, hurrying towards them.

"What happened?" he asked urgently.

"Regulus," Sirius breathed, shrugging James away and walking to his bed.

James turned towards the Muggle boys.

"Would you mind leaving us alone for a moment?" he asked politely.

But the Muggles laughed.

"Are you serious? You're trying to kick us out of the dorm? Fuck off!" Richard laughed.

"Come on, Sirius is not well. Can't you be kind for once?"

"No."

James clenched his jaw. He saw Frank leaving the room. At least one of them was reasonable...

"As you wish," James said through gritted teeth.

And he picked up his wand, making the Muggles fly out of the room, and a second later, he had locked himself inside, along with Sirius and Remus.

He strode towards Sirius's bed, where his friends were sitting already.

"Where's Peter?" he asked Remus.

The werewolf shrugged, and James brushed the thought of his friend away. They didn't have enough time to go look for Peter right now. and anyway, he had never been of much help in this kind of situation.

James sat next to Sirius, and the distressed boy was now surrounded by his two best friends.

"What happened?" Remus asked slowly.

Sirius struggled to swallow.

"I saw Reg, he was there for the Slytherins tryouts."

Remus and James exchanged a glance.

"And? What happened?" Remus asked.

Sirius shrugged. It was hard for him to force the words out of his mouth, even if he knew that he needed to talk about what had happened. Or else it would slowly kill him, and he knew it.

"He seemed afraid. I think he's gonna get himself into some kind of trouble. But when I offered to help, he refused."

He shrugged again, clearing his throat.

"I'm... I'm just afraid he would get himself in trouble and... not... call for help, you know?"

"Like you would do you mean?" Remus smiled.

Sirius chuckled.

"Yeah, like I would do."

"Sirius, I'm sure he'll be just fine," James tried to reassure his friend, patting Sirius's shoulder.

But the boy shook his head.

"No... I saw it in him. He was lying to me. I'm scared... I'm scared he would choose to become one of them to be safe..."

His voice broke, and silence covered the room for a while.

James and Remus simultaneously wrapped an arm around Sirius's shoulder.

"I'm sure he won't do that," Remus reassured his friend.

"You showed him there was another way," James added. "Besides, we're here. We won't let you down, Padfoot."

Sirius nodded slowly, tears shining in his eyes.

"Thanks, guys," he breathed.

"We'll keep an eye on him. And we'll help him when he needs us, okay?" Remus said.

Sirius nodded again.

"Okay."

"It's not too late for him, Pads," James went on. "We can still save him. And you know it. He's not evil, just not as strong as you... nor as reckless."

"But then no one is as reckless as you are anyway, so..."

The three boys laughed. And Sirius nodded again.

"Thank you," he breathed again.

"We'll always be here for you, Pads. You know that, right?" James told his best friend.

He forced his brother to look at him.

"You're not alone, Pads. You'll never be, because we're here. We're the Marauders, and we'll always be, whatever may happen. We'll always be family. Okay?"

Sirius nodded, his throat too tight to allow him to speak. And so what he couldn't say with words, he spoke with a gesture, and he wrapped his arms around James, hugging his best friend, before turning towards Remus to give him the same treatment.

"Do you feel better now?" Remus asked Sirius as they finally broke their embrace.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "I'm better, thank you, to both of you."

"You want to be alone for a while?" James asked.

Sirius nodded.

"Yeah... just a few minutes."

Remus and James stood up, leaving their friend alone. But on the threshold, Marlene was still waiting for news, and before any of the two boys could protest, she had walked into the room and locked the door behind her.

She walked slowly towards his bed. And she knew he had recognized her footsteps, as he let her approach without turning his eyes towards her.

She sat down next to him. He was paler than usual, his eyes glimmering with what she identified as withheld tears. He was looking down at his feet, his elbow resting on his knees, playing absentmindedly with his nails.

"Hey," Marlene breathed softly.

"Hey," he replied, his voice lower than usual.

"What's up?" she asked.

"My brother's in trouble," he breathed. "And I can't help him."

She nodded slowly.

"It sucks."

Sirius smiled, nodding.

"It does suck, yeah."

She looked intensely at him.

"Would you like a drink?" she proposed.

But he shook his head.

"Not sure it's a good idea," he said.

"You want me to leave you alone?"

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally shook his head.

"What about a hug then?" she proposed.

He smiled, looking up at her, and he nodded slowly.

"Yeah, a hug sounds good," he whispered.

So she wrapped her arms around him, and he wrapped his arms around her, and they tightly held on each other, sitting still upon the bed, for quite a long time.

* * *

He spotted the red-haired girl easily. She was sitting alone in the Library, clearly waiting for him, looking out by the window. He took a second to look more carefully at her, marveling at the way her tight bun imprisoned her enflamed hair, before walking to her table, taking the seat opposite her.

"So, how is Sirius?" Lily asked James, barely waiting for him to sit down.

"He'll be just fine," James reassured her. "He's a tough guy. But we all have our weaknesses. And his brother is definitely Sirius's."

"Along with the rest of you, for sure."

James smiled.

"Probably."

"So? The tryouts?" Lily asked.

James shrugged.

"The Chasers were awful, we chose the only one who managed to stay on his broom all along. Marlene and I will have a tough time training him, that's for sure. The Beater should be alright, once Sirius has taught him a few tricks. And the Seeker is actually pretty good already."

He suddenly stopped, looking intensely at her. She was resting her cheek in her palm, listening closely to him.

"Anyway, it went well," he mumbled.

How could she care about that?

"How are you going to train them?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Evans... why did you want to see me?"

She blushed fiercely.

"What do you mean?" she asked back.

"Is there any Head Duties we need to discuss?" he asked.

"Err... no but I... I just... wanted to know how the tryouts were."

A cocky smile slowly appeared on his face.

"So... you basically just wanted to see me, right?" he asked.

She blushed even more.

"I'm Head Girl, and I'm a Gryffindor. I reckon it's my duty to get informed about our Quidditch team, that's all," she replied, but her voice was too uncertain to be convincing.

"Oh... your duty, is it?" James joked. "Well, well, well..."

"Oh... Potter, don't start..."

"Just say it already," James interrupted her. "You just wanted to talk with me. And don't get me wrong here , I'm not going to complain. I love talking with you."

She bit her lower lip.

"How's your sister by the way?" he asked. "Any news of her and the other monster?"

A small smile played on her lips.

"None. But I reckon it's a good sign," she answered.

"Yeah, I reckon it is."

"So? Will you answer my question?"

"Which one?"

"How are you going to train these new players of yours?"

They exchanged a grin.

And when they left and walked to their dorm, still talking, it was only because it was time for the Library to close.


	9. Muggle Sports

**Here's the next chapter! Time for a bit of sport...**

 **Thank you so much for your reviews GreTheresa and Lara.X! I'm glad you like this story so far.**

 **I'll update again next week.**

 **Hope you like this chapter, and don't forget to leave me a little review ;)**

* * *

 **Muggle Sports...**

James had to admit that he was a bit confused. Alright he was completely confused.

Everyone was running in all directions, and he was completely lost, and judging by the faces of the other Wizards, no one could understand what was going on. And Sirius seemed to be as tired of it as he was.

"Okay, stop!" he shouted to the Muggles. "STOP!"

The boys all turned towards him.

"What's wrong?" Jersey asked the boy.

"I don't understand anything that's going here," James answered bluntly. "I'd love to understand, but you have to explain the rules, mate."

Jersey heaved a sigh, before giving in. Apparently, the boy wasn't as happy with this sport thing as he should have been.

"Alright, alright... What do you not understand?" he asked the Wizards and Witches who had all gathered around him now.

The Muggles also joined them.

"So..." Sirius started. "The blue team needs to go that way and put the ball down on this end of the field, right?" he asked, pointing at the other side of the rugby field.

"Yes," Jersey nodded.

"Then why is everyone throwing the ball in the other direction?"

"Because you don't have the right to pass the ball to another player who is closer to the part of the field you must mark on than you are."

Sirius narrowed his eyes, but shrugged.

"It's a rule?"

"Yes. And that's what makes rugby so complicated."

Jersey took his most patient and didactic tone with the Wizards.

"Why did you stop everything when I stole the ball from Richard?" Marlene asked.

"Because you were not on your feet. You were on all fours. And you can't steal the ball then."

She nodded, and they spent ten more minutes before starting to play again. Of course it wasn't a real match, they didn't even count the points. But once the Wizards and Witches had finally understood the rules, it was actually fun. They were rolling in the mud, and running, and being quite violent with each other, and had to be fast not to be caught by someone from the other team...

And Marlene loved it a _big_ deal.

And she played against Sirius.

So of course...

"You're too slow for me, Black. And you know it."

"I'm not slow. You're the slow one. And what about you calling me Sirius and not Black anymore? You're constantly slipping in and out of this arrangement, and I'm starting to be Siriusly confused."

"Oh Merlin... Don't tell me you've done that pun again..."

"It's a good pun, though."

"You're pathetic."

"McKinnon, I'm going to kick your arse."

"In your wildest dreams."

And just a moment later Marlene had the ball and was running across the field, Lily and Alice encouraging her from the stands.

But before she could reach the white line painted on the grass, she felt a pair of hands on her waist, pulling her down. She just had enough time to pass the ball to Caradoc before she would fall into the mud, Sirius lying upon her.

And they were both laughing like mad, completely careless of the game around them now.

Sirius looked down at her.

"You're alright?" he asked, choking as he laughed too hard.

She merely nodded.

"Told you I was faster than you," Sirius bragged.

She rolled her eyes, finally calming down.

"Okay, maybe you are. But..."

"But?"

"But you're naive."

"Naive? Me?"

She nodded...

... before spreading mud across his cheek.

She exploded in laughter while he was frozen on the spot.

"You don't want to play this game with me, McKinnon," Sirius warned her.

"You look hilarious!" she laughed.

"I'm not hilarious. I'm always sexy, McKinnon."

But she was laughing so hard, it was contagious. And soon Sirius was struggling not to laugh too much as well.

"You hear me? You're sure you want to start this kind of war with me?" Sirius asked her.

She nodded, still laughing.

He shrugged.

"Alright, then."

He took a handful of mud, and threw it on her brow.

She gasped, before laughing again, fighting back.

And he fought back...

And she fought back...

And soon they were both completely covered with mud, none of them playing anymore, but still lying on the ground and laughing like mad.

None of them could remember the last time they had laughed that much.

"You're a dead man," she told Sirius. "Look at my hair!"

The boy merely laughed in response.

"Look at mine! And you're the one who started this."

"I think the others just forgot about us," she pointed out as she noticed the rest of her team running across the field without a single glance towards her.

"Let's get a shower," Sirius proposed.

"Oh... yes... a shower."

"Was that a moan, McKinnon?"

"You really have to stop constantly flirting with me."

He looked at her, suddenly serious.

"You really want me to stop?"

She stared back at him.

"Because if you want me to stop, I will," he said.

"You would really do that?" she asked. "That would mean that you would stop trying to get into my knickers."

Sirius snickered.

"I'm not trying to get into your knickers, McKinnon."

"Really? 'Cause you're still flirting with me."

"If I wanted to have sex with you, you'd know it."

"Why, I'm not your style now? Didn't sound like that before."

He looked at her again, a small smile on his face.

"You're my type. A guy should be either blind either gay for you not to be his type."

She felt herself blushing, and she was happy her cheeks were covered with mud.

"But you said 'friends and no sex', remember?" Sirius reminded her.

"And you really want to be my friend?" she asked, her expression unreadable.

"Yeah, I want us to be friends," he nodded. "And if I'm flirting, it's just because you're funny when you push me away."

"You like it when I push you away?" she laughed. "You're weird sometimes."

He shrugged.

"The world is weird, anyway. Don't you think it's being normal that to be weird in a weird world?"

"Probably," she nodded, a small smile on her lips.

"So I'm normal, for this world, you see?"

"Then I'm the one who's not normal, right?"

"Don't worry, McKinnon, you're just like me. You're weird too."

He breathed deeply in and out before speaking again.

"Do you want me to stop flirting, then?"

But she gave him a warm smile, shaking her head.

"Not really. I reckon it's a part of our friendship. It's a bit a part of you. And I don't want you to change when you're around me, on the contrary. I want you to be yourself when you're with me."

He smiled.

"That's what I want too, you know? I want to be myself with you. And I want you to be yourself when you're with me too."

"I think I can do that."

"Great."

They exchanged a smile, before being interrupted by a Muggle girl heading their way.

"Are you two alright?" Angel asked the two teenagers.

"Sure, why?" Sirius asked her.

"I don't know... perhaps because you're both completely covered with mud and lying on the ground?"

"We're fine," Marlene reassured her.

"Sure?"

Sirius nodded. He stood up, before helping Marlene to get back on her feet as well.

"I think we both need a shower, McKinnon."

Marlene nodded.

"So..." Angel said before Sirius and Marlene could walk away. "The demonstration for your sport is tomorrow, right?"

"Yep. We'll go to Hogwarts at half past one, if you want to come," Sirius answered.

"I think I'm gonna come, yeah."

"Great! We'd like to have as many people as possible, so if you know some of your friends who could be interested, bring them along, okay?"

"I will."

He turned around again, running after Marlene who had resumed her walk towards the school.

She was smiling.

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"So... shower?"

"I don't know for you but I don't like having mud in my hair and on my face and... basically everywhere."

They chuckled.

"And... is there any room left in this shower of yours for a poor boy who's cold and wet and covered with mud, by any chance?"

"Let me think... If you swear to walk on the soap and hit your head against the sink hard enough for you to die... sure."

They both laughed.

"You're a bit scary sometimes, you know that?" Sirius told her.

"Scary? Me?"

"Well, you basically threatened to kill me."

"I was just joking."

"You still wished for my death."

"That's because you're annoying."

"I thought you liked when I flirted."

"You know on who you should try your lines though?"

"Who?"

"Angel."

Sirius laughed.

"Angel, really?" he replied wryly.

"What, she's beautiful," Marlene frowned.

"I'm not blind, McKinnon, thank you. I had noticed that."

"She's not your type?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Well, what _I_ know," Marlene told him, "is that, judging by the way she was devouring you with her gaze, I reckon _she_ wouldn't push you away if you started to flirt with her."

"Angel, you say?"

"Yep, Angel."

He gave her a small smile, but when he spoke again, Marlene could tell by the sound of his voice that he wasn't convinced.

"We'll see..."

* * *

James hated tennis.

He hated it. It was a very stupid game, he was bad at it, and it was just... stupid and boring.

Did his aversion for tennis have anything to do with the way Jersey had to teach Lily how to play?

100%.

The Muggle boy was purposefully holding himself close to her. The way he was standing behind her, resting his hand on hers to show her how to hold the racket...

When Lily was a Muggleborn, for Merlin's sake... She knew damn well what tennis was.

He saw her setting some distance between her and the boy, faking not to know what he was talking about, probably to be polite.

But she didn't need to be polite with a guy who was clearly flirting with her...

James walked towards them, resting his racket on his shoulder, his pace casual despite the blood that boiled in his veins.

"So? Do we play?" James asked the two of them.

They turned towards him, and Jersey couldn't hide the fact that he didn't like being bothered by the boy.

"I'm just finishing to explain Lily the game," he told James.

The Wizard frowned, looking at Lily.

"But... I thought you played with your dad?" James asked her.

She gave him a discreet smile.

"I do actually."

"You do?" Jersey asked.

"I'm Muggleborn. Both my parents are Muggles, so..."

"Oh..."

"We can play then?" James asked again.

"Sure," Jersey mumbled, clearly mad at James for interrupting his flirt with Lily.

The girl gave James a thankful smile though.

"I couldn't stop him from talking," Lily told James as they were getting ready to play.

"I saw that."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

James was really terrible at tennis though. It wasn't his thing. He was skillful for many things but not that. Everytime he touched a ball (and let's be honest, most of the time he missed them altogether), it was flying out of the tennis court.

And Lily couldn't help but find it funny.

It was cute the way he struggled to touch the ball, the way he really tried, but always failed.

But would he just give up and admit that he was bad at it?

Never.

He was way too stubborn for that, and she could testify of his stubbornness. She had been a victim of it for years.

So she decided to put an end to his agony, and offered that the two experimented Muggles would play with other Wizards and Witches.

"I don't like that sport," James told Lily as they gave their rackets to two Hufflepuffs.

"I saw that," Lily nodded, but she couldn't help but giggle.

"Don't laugh at me!" James protested, but there was a grin on his face.

"You can't be good at _everything_ , Potter. And that's okay. It just means that you're a perfectly normal person."

"A normal person? Me? No Evans, I'm not a normal person."

"Really?"

"I'm way above 'normal person'."

"And here... I didn't think it was possible but your head did get even bigger than before."

"Very funny..." he replied, rolling his eyes. "I was just kidding."

Two Muggles appeared on the court, as James was drinking a gulp of water.

"What's going on here?" the girl asked Jersey as she saw that she couldn't play.

"We're showing the Wizards how to play," Jersey told her. "We made announcements all week long that we would take the court."

"We need to train," the boy replied. "We're part of the tennis club."

"The court will be free in an hour," Lily said, her voice soothing. "Perhaps you can come back later."

But they threw her a disgusted look.

"We weren't talking to you, monster..."

James was nose to nose with the boy in the blink of an eye.

"How did you call her?" James asked, his tone frozen.

"You heard me very well," the boys replied.

"You'd better apologize."

"Potter, stop," Lily asked him, her voice calm. "Potter, he's not worth it. You'll be in trouble with McGonagall."

"Get out of here," he ordered the two Muggles.

They threw an angry glance at Jersey, but the Head Boy shook his head.

And they walked out of the court.

"What a band of jerks," James breathed.

"Come on, Potter. We need to talk about tomorrow afternoon," Lily told him.

And even if she was trying to hide it, he could see that their words had reached her heart.

And seeing her in pain made him infuriated.

He stopped her as she tried to walk past him.

"Evans, you know it's not true what they said, right?" he told her, his voice soft now.

She gave him a sad smile.

"I know, Potter. Don't worry about me."

"I'm always worried about you."

"I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

"I know."

"Then stop worrying."

But he shook his head.

"That's not what friends do."

She intensely stared at him, but didn't answer.

"When you care about someone," he went on, "you don't stop worrying about this person. Quite the contrary. It just means that I care about you."

She smiled, before nodding.

"Let's go, Potter."

He nodded, and let her walk by his side.

But as they were about to walk back to the school, Jersey called for them again.

Or well actually, he didn't call for _them_ , but...

"Lily?"

The two Gryffindors turned towards him again.

"Angel's a bit tired, would you mind being my partner for a while?" he asked the ginger girl.

She looked at James.

"I'm sorry, Jersey," she said slowly. "But we were supposed to talk about the Quidditch event tomorrow."

"It won't be that long. I'm sure Jimmy here won't mind."

"Don't call me like that," James ordered, and his voice was cold all of a sudden.

"Just five minutes?" Jersey asked, ignoring James's remark.

"She said no," James snapped, and his tone was more aggressive than he had first intended.

"Don't talk to me like that. Who do you think you are?"

"Calm down, both of you," Lily ordered the two boys. "Jersey, I'm sorry, but I can't stay."

"Come on."

He grabbed her arm, and she struggled to free herself.

"Let go of me, Jersey, I said no."

But then James was standing between her and Jersey.

"Let go of her, right now," he ordered, and there was so many threats in his cold voice and burning hazel eyes that Jersey flinched.

But he didn't let go of her.

"I said," James repeated slowly through gritted teeth. "Let. Go. Of. Her. "

"Or what?" Jersey replied.

"Or I'll curse you so hard you'll forget your damn name."

"Potter, calm down," Lily said, her voice quite shaky.

She could see he was trembling, she had never seen him so angry...

The two Muggles insulting her and now Jersey messing up with her. She knew it was too much. James was too angry.

And she knew it was dangerous to piss off impetuous wandless Wizards like James was right now.

"We both know you won't do that, Potter," Jersey spat. "You don't have your wand. You _can't_ do that."

"Try me."

"Potter, stop," Lily repeated.

"You're not brave enough to hurt any of us anyway. Bet you're much of a coward..."

But he froze when several tennis balls exploded.

Everyone on the court froze. And when Jersey turned towards James again, he was terrified.

He immediately let go of Lily and took several steps back.

But before anyone could say or do anything, James had run out of the court.

He was running towards the school.

He could hear Lily calling his name behind him.

But he had to let it out of his system, he was too angry.

Too angry against the Muggles, too angry against Jersey, too angry against himself for losing control so quickly...

The truth was, he wasn't just angry. He was scared as well.

Scared of losing Lily, scared of someone hurting her just... scared.

Since Dumbledore had asked him to look for people who could be part of any organization against Wizards or Muggles, he had searched for clues. No one knew but his friends.

But almost every night they walked out of their dorm, roaming across the school, conscious now more than ever that they needed a Map of this school as soon as possible.

He listened to conversations in the cafeteria and in the library. In the corridors, he followed students all around the school when he had a doubt.

And spying was driving him completely mad.

The knowledge that people who could hurt Lily, and would _want_ to hurt Lily were in the school was driving him completely mad.

He had barely slept in a week, and even if she had not noticed him, he had been watching Lily from afar, making sure she was safe.

Sirius and Remus kept on telling that if he didn't slow down, he would lose it and go completely nuts.

And today he had.

Somehow his feet guided him towards the toilets, and when he saw Lily running after him, he closed the door behind him.

He needed to be alone. He was too tired to hold everything back, he was too angry, too scared to think and to calm down. He couldn't be sure not to destroy anything again.

Just a few seconds later, Lily was hitting the door.

"Potter, open the door."

She sounded afraid, not angry.

"Go away," James ordered.

"Potter, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay, Evans!" he cried, his voice shaking. " I need to be left alone."

"I don't think that what you need now is to be alone, though."

"I do."

"No, you don't."

"I do."

"I'm not leaving, Potter."

"Evans, go away!"

Behind him one of the mirrors exploded in a thousand shreds of glass.

"Potter, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Evans, please..." James begged her, closing his eyes, trying to calm down.

"James, please open the door," she said softly. "You did it for me remember? And you did help me, so let me help you now."

He heaved a sigh, before walking to the door and unlocking it.

They stared at each other.

She had never seen him look so insecure. He seemed like... like he was going to explode from the inside, like he had too many emotions in him.

He took several steps back, before looking sheepishly at her.

"I didn't mean it. On the court, when..."

"I know."

"It never happened to me before. Losing control like that."

"I read it's pretty common though," she reassured him, entering and closing the door behind her. "You can have kind of... outbursts as a Wizard when you're under too much emotion."

"I'm sorry."

But when she tried to walk closer to him, he took a step back.

"What if I do it again?" he said.

She could see he was struggling to calm down. She gave him a small smile.

"I don't reckon you could ever hurt me, James," she said softly.

He intensely stared at her.

"Of course I would never hurt you," he breathed.

"Then let me help, okay?"

She walked slowly to him, and this time he didn't back away.

She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly against her.

And slowly, while butterflies were flying all around his stomach, he wrapped his arms around her as well, and held her tightly against him.

And he felt better already.

"I'm sorry," he breathed.

"What's wrong, James? It can't be just because of what happened today. Am I wrong?"

He needed to tell her about Dumbledore, and he knew it.

"You remember, the day you received your sister's letter, I went to see McGonagall."

"For the tryouts, yes."

"Dumbledore and Moody were there, I overheard what they said and... they were talking about the fire."

She looked up at him.

"What happened?" she asked, clearly curious now.

"They... they think that those who did that they... they had help from inside the school. They think that some students could have helped them."

"Merlin..."

"They... they asked me to tell them if I noticed anything suspicious, to kind of... spy for them but... since then I've been completely paranoid."

He heaved a sigh, closing his eyes.

"That's why you wanted to see me at the Library that day?" she asked.

"Yes, I wanted to warn you about that. And Dumbledore suggested that you could help but... you were busy with your sister being a bitch and... I didn't want to bother you with all this."

He shrugged.

"And I'm under stress because of Quidditch, and with the spying, and I'm constantly scared something bad would happen, and..."

He couldn't control anything that was coming out of his mouth now.

"...these Muggles talking to you like they did, and Jersey fucking flirting with you, it was just too much."

He shook himself, finding back his composure.

"But I'll be just fine, Lily. I'll be just fine," he said, confidence back in his voice. "I'm just fine."

But she could see he was lying.

"Look, James... I'll help with the spying okay? You can't do this on your own."

"The guys are trying to help too."

"Okay, well, you can count on me for that."

He nodded, staring at her.

"About Quidditch... I'm afraid I can't help," she said. "But I know you're a good Captain, and I'm sure you'll do just fine. And that you will kick Slytherins' butts."

He smiled.

"And I can take a few insults," she told him. "I'm more or less used to it by now."

"You shouldn't be," he replied.

"But the reality is that I am used to it. So don't worry. I can take it."

He nodded.

"And I don't like Jersey."

He struggled not to show his relief.

"But... I thought we had talked about that," Lily added, slowly, cautious in her choice of words. "You know? You and me?"

He looked away from her magnetic green eyes.

"I'm not going to ask you out again, Evans," he reassured her. "Don't worry. I say I wouldn't, and I won't."

"You were jealous of Jersey though."

"Lily..."

"We're barely starting to get along, James."

"I know."

"And if you asked again today, my answer would still be the same."

"I know that."

He shrugged, looking at her again.

"But it's not like I could control how I feel about you."

She remained frozen.

"I've asked you out for years," he went on, "and there was a reason for me to do so. It wasn't just for fun. I've promised you I would not ask you to be my girlfriend again, and I will do it. But you can't ask me to just... act as if nothing had happened, as if I had never felt anything for you. Because... I can't do that. I can't stop feeling the way I feel for you. Trust me, I've tried, but I can't. I don't think I will ever be able to do that."

She was like transfixed, staring at him but not moving a single muscle, an aghast expression on her face.

"I'm sorry I acted jealous. I'll try not to do it again. But..."

He chased a strand of her red hair away from her face, his fingertips brushing her cheekbone.

And her heart leapt in her chest.

"...you've always been different, Lily. It has always been you. You're the only one I've ever wanted. And I don't think it's going to change. So I can...pretend I am not feeling like that anymore if you'd like but... it's not going to be the truth, and you'll always be different from all the other girls I will ever encounter. It will always be you..."

He dropped his hand to his side again, Lily still speechless.

"Thank you, for coming here and... helping me to calm down."

And before she could find back her voice, he had walked out of the room, leaving Lily standing there, alone...

...and her heart had never beaten so fast.


	10. Versus Quidditch

**Here come a new chapter! I'm sorry I was busy last week, so I'm terribly late to update.**

 **Thank you so much to GreTheresa and for your reviews, it means the world, really...**

 **I'll be back at University next week, so... I'll update whenever I can.**

 **Hope you like this chapter, and please, don't forget to leave a little review to tell me what you thought about this :)**

* * *

 **...Versus Quidditch**

She hadn't talked to him again that day. Actually, she had fled him all day long. She couldn't face his hazel eyes for now, not after his confession.

She had always thought that James was after her because he was too stubborn to give up. Because she refused to go out with him in the first place. Because he liked the chase. She had always thought that he would stop being interested in her the second she would accept to have a date with him. But what he had told her that day proved that she had been wrong all along.

He cared about her. He _wanted_ to be with her. It wasn't just a game. He didn't want a one-night stand, he wouldn't walk away in the morning. She had read it in his eyes, he wasn't lying to her when he had confessed that he had feelings for her. And now she felt guilty for having been so hard on him for so long. She was starting to think that she could have hurt him, when all she had ever wanted was him to leave her be.

Could it be true? Could James Potter actually _love_ her?

They were so different. She was organized and he was in a constant mess, he broke the rules constantly and she was trying to live by them when they were fair, he always finished his essays in the corridor before class, and she never finished them later than two days before the deadline... He was so different from her, and yet he was funny, and kind enough now that he had stopped to act like his head was the size of the Quidditch pitch...

He was dangerous to her. Because if she was being completely honest with herself, she found him cute enough with his messy hair and lopsided glasses, and crooked smile, and his annoying habit of running a hand in his dark hair...

Waiting for him in the courtyard to guide the students to Hogwarts, she couldn't help but feel afraid.

What would he tell her? How would he act with her after their last conversation? Was he going to talk to her at all, or just ignore her? Was he going to act as if nothing had happened?

Students had started to gather on the grounds around her, and somehow, she hoped James wouldn't see her through the crowd and forget about her.

But...

"Hi, Evans."

She turned towards him, forcing a smile.

"Hi, Potter."

"How are you?" he asked, his smile never leaving his lips.

"I'm okay."

"Shall we then?" he added, nodding towards the stairs.

"Sure..."

He had chosen to ignore their conversation.

Fine, perfect... that's what she wanted as well.

Wasn't it?

They walked side by side up the stairs, guiding the students towards McGonagall's office, so that they could travel to Hogwarts.

"So... you're okay?" she asked softly as they walked through a corridor. "I mean... after what happened yesterday."

"I've calmed down," James nodded. "Don't worry about me."

She nodded.

"Right... you've calmed down. Right..."

He was definitely acting as if nothing had happened.

Fine, fine, fine...

Eventually they all reached Hogwarts, where everything had been planned, and the Muggles were guided towards the pitch.

And the Wizards were on a little cloud.

"Finally!" Sirius cried as he walked across the Entrance Hall. "We're home!"

"It does feel like coming home, doesn't it?" Marlene nodded.

"It does indeed!"

"Now more than ever," Marlene added under her breath.

But next to her, Sirius had heard her words. He sat on his broomstick, flying next to her as she walked across the school, looking at her.

"Hogwarts has a tendency to feel like your real home when you don't have one of your own," he nodded.

"You feel that way too?" she asked softly.

"Yep. I've been adopted by these old stones really. And whenever someone asks me where I come from, I tell them that I come from here."

"I reckon it's a good place to be from," she smiled.

"An excellent one," Sirius nodded, smiling as well.

They finally noticed that the Muggles behind them were staring at Sirius as he was still flying a few centimeters above the ground.

"How do you do that?" Jerry asked Sirius.

But the boy shrugged.

"It's just something we can do," Sirius smiled.

They reached the grounds at last, and Sirius sat properly on his broomstick, before taking a bit of height.

"You are not allowed..." Lily started.

"... to fly on the grounds," Sirius finished for her, flying above her. "Relax, Evans. We're home! Can't you turn off this prefect switch of yours for just one day and have fun?"

James couldn't help but laugh as Sirius was gaining speed, flying higher, and howling to the wind.

The Muggles were guided towards the Pitch, and James and Sirius spent some time teaching them the most basic rules of Quidditch. They showed the Muggles the different balls they would use to play, and finally, they proposed to take the Muggles for a flight around the Pitch.

And Marlene pushed softly Angel towards Sirius for the first trip.

Sirius shook his head, but Marlene merely winked at him, taking care of another Muggle.

"Alright," Sirius told Angel. "Just sit like me right before me, okay?"

She did as instructed, purposefully getting close to Sirius.

"Like that?" she asked softly.

He nodded slowly, taking a look at Marlene a few meters away.

She wasn't paying attention to him at all, she was helping a young girl to sit on her broom.

"Put your hands on the broom," he instructed.

She complied, and he rested his hands on hers.

"You're ready?" he asked in her ear.

She nodded, and he slowly flew up.

She let out a shriek of fear as she looked down at the ground that was already a couple of meters away from her feet.

"You're okay?" Sirius laughed.

"Oh... shit..." she breathed, closing her eyes tightly.

Sirius immobilized his broom in mid-air.

"Okay, open your eyes," he instructed. "We're not even moving, don't be afraid it's perfectly safe."

She nodded, opening her eyes.

"Okay, it's very easy to guide a broom, you see?" Sirius went on. "You just move your hands towards the direction you want to go. Let's get down a bit, I reckon we went high enough for you."

He slowly guided the broom towards the ground, and he felt Angel slowly relaxing in his arms.

"Better like that?" he asked as they were a mere meter away from the grass.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Okay, let's fly around the pitch."

He flew around the pitch slowly, being careful not scaring her again, and she seemed to finally appreciate it.

"That's great," she smiled as he helped her hopping down the broom.

"You liked that?"

"Yeah. But... how fast can you go?"

Sirius merely winked at her, before rising higher above the Pitch, and flying as fast as he could, and the Muggles down there laughed and clapped.

Until he found Marlene flying by his side.

"Trying to fly faster than you can handle, Black?" she teased.

"Trying to flirt again, McKinnon?" he replied.

They slowed down, remaining high above the grass so that they could be alone for a moment.

"So? Angel?" Marlene asked eagerly.

But Sirius merely shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't... feel attracted to her to be honest."

"Didn't look like that when you two were on your broom though."

"Why? Did you keep watching me all along, McKinnon?"

She rolled her eyes.

"You do whatever you want," she said. "But you look cute together."

He laughed.

"We'll see about that," he answered elusively, getting down again.

"Are you uncomfortable talking about girls with me?" Marlene asked him.

Sirius shrugged again.

"Perhaps a bit," he admitted.

"Why? We're friends."

"Yeah but... it's not the same with you, McKinnon," he breathed.

"What do you mean?"

"It's just not the same. You're different."

"Is it because I'm a girl."

But he shook his head.

"It's because you're you."

But before she could add anything, he was hurrying towards the group of Muggles and he took a young boy on his broomstick.

And Marlene remained there, flying still, quite puzzled, for a rather long while.

* * *

Everyone had walked to the Castle, where cakes and tea were served in the Great Hall. But James had remained behind, and when she noticed that he wasn't in the Hall, Lily walked back to the Pitch. She found him there, sitting in the middle of the grass, watching the three tall rings of the Quidditch Pitch. She silently walked towards him, and sat down by his side.

"You're okay, Potter?" she asked softly.

He nodded.

"I miss this place," he said, his tone matching hers.

"Me too," she admitted.

"I talked to McGonagall about the Muggles who insulted you yesterday," he said. "She's going to keep an eye on them."

She nodded slowly.

"Are okay about that? Spying and everything," she asked.

A small smile played on his lips.

"Now that you joined the vigilante team I'm sure we'll be much more efficient," he said, looking down at her.

"I bet you'd be lost without me anyway," she joked.

"Hell, yes, Evans."

She nervously played with the sleeve of her sweater.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said slowly.

"You'll never have to ask for permission for that," he smiled.

"Did you... did you mean what you said yesterday? About... you having... feelings for me?"

He looked down at the grass, fleeing her intense glance.

"I think we should forget about what I said yesterday really," he breathed. "I wasn't... I wasn't myself."

"That doesn't answer my question."

She rested her hand on his arm, and he looked at her again.

"James?" she whispered. "I need to know."

"Are you going to stop talking to me if I say that I meant it?" he asked in a breathy whisper.

She shook her head, a reassuring smile on her face.

"No, I won't stop talking to you, whatever your answer may be," she promised.

He looked away again, before slowly nodding.

She let her hand slip down his arm, until it came resting on his hand, and he intertwined his fingers with hers.

"I'm not ready for that, James," she said softly, looking away as well. "We're just starting to be friends."

"I know, Lily," he nodded.

She rested her head against his shoulder.

His heart was beating so fast...

"Could you wait for me for just... a bit longer?" she asked, her voice barely audible above the sound of the wind.

He stared at her, but her eyes were still looking blankly at the empty Pitch.

A grin appeared on his face, and for a moment, he thought he was dreaming. But then she looked up at him, a questioning glint alit in her green eyes.

"James?"

He nodded.

"I've waited for six years, a few more months won't kill me," he answered.

They exchanged a grin, and she rested her head against his shoulder again, closing her eyes. And she didn't push him away when he rested his cheek against her red hair, closing his eyes as well.

Perhaps this year was not going to be so terrible after all...

* * *

She knew there was something wrong going on the second she walked into the empty office. The second she took a step in the corridor leading to the grounds. The second she walked towards the iron gate. The second she saw the crowd gathered before the school. The second she heard the words they were spitting in hate.

 _Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters!_

It was like a strange anthem echoing throughout her veins.

She walked closer to the gate, until she could wrap her pale fingers around the cold metal, looking at the angry crowd, looking at the Aurors and the policemen who were trying to keep the crowd at a safe distance from the school.

 _Give us back our school! Give us back our school! Give us back our school!_

It felt quite blur, as if the whole scene was in slow motion. The signs that were waved in the air, the shouts, all this noise, all this rage...

It didn't really feel like it was real. It felt like a dream. Or... more like a nightmare.

And perhaps if she waited just a few more seconds, she would wake up safely in her bed.

 _Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo!_

She felt someone on her left, looking outside as well, and she turned towards the boy with messy dark hair that had appeared by her side.

And James seemed just as lost as her.

 _Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters!_

And next to him Sirius and Marlene were lost as well, frowning hard. And Remus on her right as well...

Perhaps none of this was real and she would soon wake up...

 _Give us back our school! Give us back our school! Give us back our school!_

She felt James's fingers brush against hers, and she held his hand tightly in hers. And somehow, the feeling of his calloused fingers against hers was enough to make her realize that it wasn't a mere nightmare.

"Why are they doing this?" Sirius asked slowly, his voice barely audible above the shouts of the angry crowd.

"I don't know, Pads," James shook his head. "I really don't know."

 _Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo!_

"They're scared of us, so they hate us," Lily said slowly.

She felt James tighten his grip on her hand.

"We won't let them win though."

 _Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters!_

But then Lily caught a glimpse of some dark hair and a brown dress she knew.

Her green eyes met her sister's gaze.

And she was shouting with the others.

 _Give us back our school! Give us back our school! Give us back our school!_

Vernon was there too, he was waving a sign with a broken wand painted on it.

It was Lily's turn to tighten her grip on James's hand.

"That's my sister out there," she breathed, just loudly enough for James to hear.

The boy followed her gaze, and rage boiled through his veins at the sight of the young woman who was shouting.

 _Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo!_

"And the guy next to her?" James asked, looking at Vernon.

"That's her fiancé, yes."

"You were right, he does look like a pig."

She smiled, a tear rolling down her eyes.

James wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him.

 _Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters! Off with the monsters!_

"It's alright, Lily," he breathed. "They're wrong. And we'll show them. We won't give up. We'll show them that they're wrong."

"What if they don't want us to show them?" she replied. "What if they refuse to see?"

"Then let's show them right now, when they can't ignore us."

James picked up his wand, and pointed it towards the sky.

And he lit up the tip of his wand with a shy light, like a candle held towards the heavens, like a small beacon shining through the storm.

And Lily smiled.

 _Give us back our school! Give us back our school! Give us back our school!_

She picked up her wand as well, and pointed it towards the sky, her and James smiling, and a shy light appeared at the tip of her wand as well.

And Sirius followed close, and Remus, and Marlene, and all the Wizards and Witches who had gathered into the grounds to look at the crowd that shouted before the gates.

The Muggles raised their open hands towards the skies as well.

 _Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo! Monsters don't go to school, they go to the zoo!_

None of the students moved, they merely remained there, united, standing before the storm that raged in front of them, as if they were above all this, as if no matter how hard these people full of hate were trying to hurt them, they couldn't. Because they knew who was right and who was wrong. And they knew hate had never been a solution.

And slowly, very slowly, the crowd of the FMM members grew silent. The Aurors and the policemen stopped shouting and pushing back the men and women in the front line. They all turned towards the silent children that stood there, silent as well.

It was a strange sight indeed. Teenagers holding lights and raising their hands in peace facing grown men and women waving signs upon which were only written messages full of rage. The whole picture was wrapped in silence.

Their teachers joined them, and Dumbledore walked next to the Gryffindors, along with McGonagall. And they imitated their students, raising their shining wands as well. And there was such a proud glint in their eyes as they looked at their students.

More policemen arrived, and more Aurors ran towards the protest, and at the sight of them, the crowd slowly walked away.

"We'll be back!" a man shouted. "This is not over! We'll get our schools back!"

"We'll keep our children safe from you all!" a woman added, shouting as well.

But none of the children flinched.

And when they were all gone, the students slowly lowered their hands and wands, and started to walk away.

Dumbledore patted James's shoulder, and he winked at him. And when he spoke, the Wizard's voice was full of pride.

"You see, _this_ is why I made you Head boy, James."

And the Headmaster was gone before James could realize the meaning of his words.

Although, he was starting to understand now...

Soon, they were all gone, except for Lily, who was staring at the corner of the street where her sister had disappeared.

James took her hand in his again.

"Lily?" he called softly.

"Yes?" she breathed.

"Come with me, I want to show you something."

She finally looked away from the street, and followed him across the school, as he guided her towards the dorms.

They passed before the rest of the Gryffindors, who had gathered into the boys' dormitories, and James opened his trunk, and picked up some sort of cloak along with a little bag, before striding out, pulling Lily with him.

When they were outside the dorms again, and James finally unfolded the cloak, Lily's eyes grew wide as she recognized the item he was holding casually in his hands.

"Is that... an invisibility cloak?" she breathed.

"Yep," James nodded. "We'll need to get under this."

"Are you gonna get me in trouble, Potter?" she asked, a small smile on her lips.

"Just trust me, would you?" he asked.

She nodded slowly, and he covered both of them with the magical cloth, and he guided her throughout the school again.

He helped her climb up at an old ladder made of dusty wood.

The fresh wind hit her cheeks, blowing in her hair. She looked around her, a smile forming on her lips. And next to her, James was smiling as well, as he looked at her reaction, folding his cloak again.

"So? What do you say?" he asked, helping her to sit down.

They were on the rooftop, and from there, they could see most of London. The pale sun was shining on the Thames, and the parliament was visible from afar, lost in the midst of towers and rooftops that built the shape of London.

"It's beautiful," Lily nodded.

He handed her a chocolate frog, and she laughed, thanking him.

"Chocolate to heal our poor hearts?" she asked.

James shrugged.

"I know it's going to be tough for you," James said, and his voice was serious, although his tone was soft and warm, reassuring. "But you're not alone. None of us is. They're the ones who are wrong, it's not our fault. And... and I think you need to remember... how strong you are. Because you _are_ strong, Lily. You're the strongest person I've ever met. Even if... even the strongest people need help sometimes, even the strongest people need to share the burdens they usually carry on their own. So... Chocolate, a pretty view and a friend who is all ears if you want to talk, or up for a hug if you don't want to talk... I reckon that's precisely what someone as strong as you need right now."

She stared at him for a moment, before enlacing their fingers together.

"Thanks," she said, her voice made a bit hoarse by all the emotions that were bubbling inside her.

She cleared her throat, looking at the town again.

"You know we don't have the right to here though, don't you?" she told James.

"Most of fun things to do are forbidden anyway," he replied.

"How did you find this place?"

"The guys and I did a bit of exploration."

"I bet you did..."

"I thought you liked the view."

"I do like the view," she nodded, eating her candy. "It's beautiful."

A dreamy smile appeared on James's face without him even noticing, as he stared at the ginger girl next to him.

"Yeah... it is beautiful."

She laughed, knowing he was looking at her, and not at the rooftops.

"No pick-up line, please," she said, still laughing.

"I couldn't use pick-up line on you, Lils," James replied.

"Why not?"

"Because I've already tried all of them on you and none worked, so..."

"Poor James, so what are you gonna do now?"

"I'm trying to use pick-up candies."

They both laughed.

"Pick-up candies?"

"Well, whatever I may say you remain completely indifferent to my charisma, so I thought I could buy your affection."

"With chocolate frogs."

"I also have Sugar Quills."

"Oh... well, if you are Sugar Quills then..."

"You can't resist Sugar Quills. I know you can't."

They laughed again, and when they finally calmed down, Lily rested her head in the crook of his neck, and James held her tightly against him.

"So? Are candies enough to buy your love?" he asked with a smile.

She chuckled.

"Don't spoil everything, Potter. I was just starting to like your company."

He stared down at her, and she could hear a shift in his voice when he spoke again, as if he wasn't really joking anymore.

"Like my company? Or like me?"

She cuddled closer to him.

"Maybe a bit of both," she whispered.

James smiled. A bright, earnest smile.

And when he drop a sweet kiss on her forehead, she didn't push him away.


End file.
